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Men 

Who Sell Things 






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Men 

Who Sell Things 

Observations and Experiences of Over 
Twenty Years as Travelling Sales¬ 
man, European Buyer, Sales 
Manager, Employer 


By 

Walter D. Moody 



CHICAGO 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 
1907 




Copyright 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 
1907 

Published December 7, 1907 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 


DEC II 1907 



5Tl)e Uakfsttif ^flmss 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 












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Don Farnsworth 






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Dedicated to 

The Commercial Ambassador 

“ The Man Who Sells Things 99 



Foreword 


When a man has taken the “ third degree ” in 
the science of salesmanship, has put finishing touches 
on a career of strapping and unstrapping cases in hot 
Summers and chilly Winters, has taken a course in 
hard knocks at the College of Give-and-Take; after 
he has been Jrappeed by below-zero receptions; 
after he has simmered in the caldron of competi¬ 
tion ; after he has set his foot on the path that 
leads to the summit of the mountain peak Success; 
after he has taken his post-graduate training in see¬ 
ing Hope deferred, — I believe he should have the 
degree of Commercial Ambassador brought to him 
on a golden salver, for he is now a professor in the 
gentle arts of Peace and Plenty. 

If you will recall the definition of Ambassador 
as set down in the dictionaries, it signifies an envoy 
of the highest rank sent by one government to 
another for the advantage of both. If there is 
anybody in the world who knows more about 
diplomacy than the men who sell things, knows 
more of dexterity, skill, and tact, more of the art 
of conducting negotiations, I will cheerfully waive 
the title of Ambassador and return to those of 
Travelling Man and Drummer. 

[ix] 




Foreword 


But, even then, is not every salesman worthy 
the name, an envoy of the highest rank sent by one 
house to another ? ‘i, 

Herald, then, the Commercial Ambassador! 
He is the herald and harbinger of the good things 
in the world — all of them. When he stops bump¬ 
ing the ties hotels will hang out “ To Let ” signs, 
railroads will have salt-watered stock, and store-f. 
keepers everywhere will raise cobwebs in their shop-' 
windows. He keeps going — and he keeps all the 
rest going. He is the Ambassador Extraordinary 
and Plenipotentiary. 

What, then, of the man who sends back the 
Ambassador’s card by an office-boy, who turns his 
back upon him, who curtly refuses him a look-in ? 
Such a man fails absolutely to safeguard the interests 
of his customers, proves him ignorant of his own 
welfare, and into the bargain cheats himself out of 
the rich storehouse of knowledge that can be entered 
only through the magic key intrusted to the Com¬ 
mercial Ambassador — that daily reviewer of the 
results of human endeavor of every sort, from des¬ 
perate failure to brilliant success. Hoch der Ambas¬ 
sador! 


Contents 


Chapter 


Page 

I. 

The New Era ..... 

13 

II. 

Pure Grit ..... 

26 

III. 

The Knocker ..... 

44 

IV. 

The Order-Taker .... 

57 

V. 

The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

70 

VI. 

The Wheelbarrow Salesman 

95 

VII. 

The Know-It-All Salesman 

111 

VIII. 

The Quick-Tempered Salesman. 

117 

IX. 

The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

125 

X. 

The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman 

136 

XI. 

The Old-Timer .... 

145 

XII. ✓'"The Right Kind of Salesman 

158 

XIII. vThe Mind as a Magnet 

181 

XIV. v Specializing Efforts .... 

188 

XV 

Letters to the Trade 

203 

XVI. 

Getting the Price .... 

213 

XVII. 

Dress and Orderliness 

229 

XVIII. 

Retail Salesmen .... 

240 

XIX. 

The Salesman’s Relation to Credits . 

260 

XX. 

The Salesman’s Relation to the Buyer 

272 

XXI. 

The Sales Manager .... 

281 

XXII. 

Getting an Interest in the Business . 

287 






Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER I 


THE NEW ERA 


The salesman regularly supplies the electric 
spark which keeps the commercial engine going. 

HIS book is an attempt to specify the qualifica- 



-*■ tions necessary to the making of a successful 
salesman, and the reasons for so many failures in 
the greatest profession on earth, the profession of 


salesmanship. 


I wish to write, not of the doctrine of “ luck,” 
“chance,” and “good fortune,” but of the doctrine 
of effort and result; to proclaim that highest form 
of twentieth-century salesmanship which brings suc¬ 
cess, not to the indolent, the improvident, and the 
dreamer, but to the striving, the intelligent, and the 
busy man. 

The commonplace salesman who is content 
with a mediocre degree of success, who lacks either 
desire or power to labor for the best that his pro¬ 
fession contains, is little worthy of the name “sales¬ 
man.” 

Work of the type most needed in the field of 
salesmanship is the successful carrying out of that 
which reflects the most credit upon the profession. 


[IS] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Little that is worth having is secured in this 
world except by unceasing toil. The salesman must 
be glad to do a salesman's work. 

“ Few battles are ever finally won. There are 
always positions to be held and new ones to be con¬ 
quered.” 

The enormous pressure of new business and 
the constant tightening of competition seem to crush 
out the hope and energy of a large proportion of 
salesmen. The great problem of modern business 
progress to the salesman is how to deal with this 
tendency,— how to prevent being crushed out and 
shoved to one side in the mad commercial whirl 
for conquest. 

The well-rounded salesman who has husbanded 
his strength for the onrush will find methods to 
preserve his talent and energy from decay. The 
preservation will come, not through boasting or 
through the acquisition of new territory and accounts, 
nor through the magnification of past achievements, 
but through the natural law of infinite patience, 
constant study of new conditions, clearer adaptation 
of means to ends, infinite devotion to instant duty, 
and absolute fidelity to his house as it is and yet 
may be. 

There can be no more accepted time than the 
present as the arena of this action. The success of 
the efficient salesman will be greater in proportion 
[14] 


The New Era 


to the number of those who are yet unaware of 
the changing times and the growing feeling that 
professional salesmanship must supersede the old 
school of unorganized ways and methods. 

The crowding of the field of salesmanship, and 
the exhaustion of old-time resources in the art of 
selling goods, have forced a revolution in this special 
branch of industry. The pressure of business 
intensified, manufacturers and merchants who em¬ 
ploy large forces of travelling salesmen are looking 
for a new degree of greatness in salesmanship 
based on scientific methods. 

More zealous care is needed that no talent may 
be neglected, that employers may not constantly 
be obliged to seek outside forces with wdiich to 
replenish their depleted sales ranks. 

The successful salesman will not lose his char- \ 
acter. His proud claim of leadership on the sales 
force of his house will not pass into the hands of 
others if he recognizes the fact that his first duty to 
himself, and his highest duty to his house, is to have 
his ship constantly cleared for the action of the 
present strenuous day, and to be prepared for the 
coming era of unparalleled commercial activity. 

To the twentieth-century salesman it is of the 
utmost moment to look at coming conditions and 
make sure the defence of his selling methods against 
the creeping foe lurking behind commonplace ways, 
[15] 


Men Who Sell Things 

— the foe that only newer, better, and quicker 
methods can halt in his conquest of the indolent, 
the over-anxious, the old-timer and all other types 
of negative salesmen that go to make up the vast 
crowd of the improvident and \inwise. 

A salesman of experience realizes that ideas — 
practical methods of selling goods — are of the 
greatest value, and he also knows that it pays him 
to search for them. It takes brains to influence 
brains. Some one has said: “For every ten 
dollars that a high-salaried man draws, he gets 
nine dollars for what he knows and one dollar for 
what hedoes.” 

The same old way of doing things cannot be 
successfully employed month after month and year 
after year. The salesman must be modem — up to 
date — as much as the men of other professions. 
The physician or lawyer finds that to compete suc¬ 
cessfully he is compelled to read, read, read, all the 
time, in order that he may leam of advancement in 
treatments or procedures. 

“To the man who fails belong the excuses.” 
The more good ideas, the better the basis for good 
work. The best of salesmen fail at times to sell to 
certain buyers, without being able to give a reason 
for falling down. The methods employed suc¬ 
cessfully for many years seem to count for nothing. 
In such cases, no doubt, a very little thing, a mere 
[ 16 ] 


The New Era 


oversight, perchance, has caused the trouble. To 
locate the “nigger in the wood-stack” in one’s 
methods means much. The only hope lies in 
putting the plumb-line of the experience of others 
beside one’s own. 

Every new idea aids in the salesman’s ultimate 
triumph — adds a sound piece of timber to the 
structure of his final success. 

Failure does not come through making mis¬ 
takes , but in refusing to learn by mistakes how to 
avoid them. 

Experience is a good teacher, but it is a great 
thing to be able to learn from the experience of 
others, for we cannot all have the same experiences 
or the same view of similar experiences. There 
are many pathways to success, but the road of the 
individual’s experience is narrow and rugged. 

The old-time “minstrel” travelling man is a 
thing of the past, and with him have gone the day$ 
of getting business by means of circus tricks, chi¬ 
canery, and sleight-of-hand performances in tact. 
True knowledge properly applied is the power behind 
the throne winning the big business of to-day. 

That vast army of business-getters known as 
travelling salesmen have attained a dignity fitted to 
promote the interests of their houses in the field, 
realizing that scientific methods have placed their 
vocation in the list of professions . 

[17] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The real purpose, character, calibre, and life 
of the commercial traveller have too long been de¬ 
preciated by the general public. He may be suffer¬ 
ing in this respect for the sins of his forefathers on 
the road; but things have changed. No one has a 
right to look upon any phase or sphere of American 
manhood as subject-matter for a joke-book, and 
the travelling salesman is becoming very tired, and 
justly so, of being regarded as a five-ring circus, or 
a wild beast going about seeking whom he may 
devour. 

True, the law of “the survival of the fittest” 
has caused business on the road to become a con¬ 
test of wits; but it is also true that the travelling 
salesman has elevated himself and his work by force 
of character and dint of his own energies. 

Many writers on matters pertaining to sales¬ 
manship have not yet discovered the real character 
and work of road salesmen. We are looking to a 
higher and better sphere of usefulness in the business 
and social world than much of the stuff written to 
portray real road life would indicate. 

“ John Henry,” “ It’s Up to You,” and other 
modern compilations are side issues compared to 
the vernacular of the road as served up by some 
writers in object-lesson style to attract the attention 
of salesmen as a guise for a course in salesmanship. 

The salesman who regards his work from a 

[ 18 ] 


The New Era 


serious, high-grade standpoint is constantly seeking 
instruction of a meritorious nature — new ways 
and methods. He does not want stories of road life 
veneered in the coarsest slang, all tending to assign 
to him a serio-comic role. 

What the world of salesmanship wants is edu¬ 
cated enthusiasm. The purest of king’s English 
will secure an audience and hold attention for the 
salesman anywhere, while slang and short cuts of 
speech often excite distrust and offend the ear of the 
truly refined. The field is ripe for educated sales¬ 
men,— the sort that refuse to give their customers 
credit for knowing more about their business than 
they know themselves,— salesmen who can go out 
and put up a selling-talk that is earnest, logical, 
and clean-cut from the time they strike one town 
until the train carries them to the next with their 
pockets full of orders. 

The question of handling a customer in making 
a sale is naturally a local issue to some extent, as 
merchants in widely separated localities conduct 
their business according to the usages of their 
particular sections. 

It is also true that dealers in small towns re¬ 
quire different tactics from the large city merchant; 
but no matter what the conditions may be, the old 
saying, “Business is business,” holds true pretty 
much the world over. 


[ 19 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

With the arrival of interurban electric cars 
and rural free deliveries and telephones and many 
other improvements in rural districts, a pace of pro¬ 
gression has set in, even in the most out-of-the-way 
village, that is rapidly changing the ideas and 
methods of the country merchant. With the farmer 
buying automobiles, and the prosperous small¬ 
town business man sending his sons off to college, 
it is high time for the travelling salesman to begin 
to realize that a new era is dawning for him also. 

It is no longer necessary in making a town to 
begin the day before by planning some new and 
wonderful strategy that will insure the selling of a 
bill to this or that customer; no need of a “ Samantha 
Allen” visit, with a dance at the village hall in the 
evening with your favorite customer's friends and 
family. 

Tact ? Why, yes, that is necessary, of course. 
You can no more interest the man whose store has 
just been robbed, or whose head salesman has just 
left to take a position with his worst competitor, 
now than you could twenty years ago. But you 
can approach the merchant the country over, small 
town or large, under ordinary circumstances, and 
gain and hold his attention with the right kind of 
selling-talk, all on business and delivered straight 
from the shoulder. Even the “ before-breakfast 
grouch” will listen to you if there is a resolute 
[ 20 ] 


The New Era 

ring in your voice and a good-natured sparkle in 
your eye. 

One of the most successful business men of my 
acquaintance started life with a shoestring, and 
worked his way up from stock-boy to salesman, 
from salesman to buyer, from buyer to the head of 
the greatest house in the world in his line, besides 
holding large outside responsibilities. 

The most prominent feature of his character 
was his remarkable earnestness of purpose. There 
was not a salesman in the long list of those in his 
employ who could begin to approach him in selling- 
talk, and he had some of the best men in the busi¬ 
ness. As buyer, before he became an employer, it 
is said of him that he could take prospective cus¬ 
tomers into his office for fifteen minutes, from among 
the largest and hardest merchants to sell to in the 
country, and turn them out with an immediate and 
enthusiastic desire to go through the great establish¬ 
ment and select goods. 

He had no time to bandy idle words, and rarely 
indulged in useless sentences or light remarks. He 
believed buyers came into his store bent on business; 
and he despatched them with courtesy, backed up 
by arguments, every word of which put new ideas 
into his customers’ minds and helped to swell the 
accounts tfn the right side of his ledgers. 

Basing my calculations on actual experience 

[ 21 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

with a large number of salesmen of all classes, sorts, 
and conditions, I assert without any hesitation that 
the really big men, those who have made the pro¬ 
fession worth while, are the ones who have employed 
the highest degree of science in their work,— not 
an acquired science, perhaps, but a natural, estab¬ 
lished, and classified knowledge of men and things 
relating to the daily routine of their work: 

“Brain stuff and soul stuff” 

I am not the one to gainsay that an acquired 
science of professional salesmanship will be generally 
recognized by employers of large numbers of sales¬ 
men within the next five or ten years, in fact, an 
exact science of successful salesmanship has already 
been formulated, and is being taught with success; 
it fits the needs of our profession, just as the science 
of law or of materia medica fits the requirements of 
those respective professions, and is receiving wide¬ 
spread attention on the part of thinking salesmen and 
employers of salesmen. 

Failures may be due to lack of natural ability, 
or adaptability, but they are more often due to lack of 
intelligent application. 

There are many industrious salesmen who have 
always applied their energies in commonplace ways, 
— for instance, with territories that could easily be 
made to yield much larger returns from theTr labor,— 
who have little idea of the great values that may be 
[ 22 ] 


The New Era 

produced on a given territory subject to high culture 
in salesmanship. 

There is a natural tendency, when big sales are 
made by the really successful men, to suppose that 
they are peculiar to some distant or especially favored 
location, that the golden harvest, the good things, are 
away off somewhere else, in the other fellow’s ter¬ 
ritory. Those failing to see advantages at home, 
who are disposed to seek the gold at the rainbow’s 
end, may well ponder the story of the old Persian 
who sold his little hillside farm, wandered far over 
land and sea in a vain search for diamonds, and 
finally died a pauper in a strange land; while the 
stranger watering his flock at the stream on the little 
farm found a peculiar pebble glittering in the brook, 
which proved to be the first of a wealth of gems such 
as the old man had gone to seek. 

All salesmen start with an equal chance, but 
many are soon distanced in the race. They are con¬ 
tent with a steady, plodding, uniform way of doing 
things, and while they are methodical and obtain 
good results, those who win figure out some way of 
getting better results and getting them more easily. 
They take chances on doing things in other than the 
prescribed way, often finding the new way the better. 
Few have the energy to break out and get away into 
the wild fields of effort worth while. 

We get into a certain circular routine, and we go 
[ 23 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

around and around, week in and week out, year in 
and year out, not realizing that life's really important 
work is the doing of something new . 

The opportunities of the present are vastly 
superior to the opportunities of the last two or three 
decades. The needs of our great commercial ma¬ 
chine multiply with its growth; and he is the for¬ 
tunate salesman who has learned the immense value 
of educated enthusiasm , for to him is open the pathway 
to high-salaried positions that appear as dreams of 
Aladdin’s Cave to his less ambitious brother. 

True, the mountain seems high, but he who 
finds the right road will surely get to the top. Every 
mountain seems insurmountable at first, but little by 
little the distance is laid behind, and at last, half 
wondering whether it is a mountain after all, we find 
ourselves at the top. But to find the easy ascent to 
the golden mountain of salesmanship, the salesman 
must first dig, dig, dig, deep in the fields of knowl¬ 
edge of his profession. 

Successful salesmanship carries with it large 
salaries — often of from five to fifteen thousand 
dollars per annum. “ Oh! but such salaries are not 
for me,” wails the timorous one. Listen! The sales¬ 
man who lies down at the beginning with, “Oh, I 
never had any luck. By the time I get there I’ll find 
some one else already there ahead of me,” would 
better stay out of the salesmanship business,— or 
[ 24 ] 


The New Era 


any other kind of business, for that matter. He is 
of little faith, a pessimist, a failure at heart to begin 
with, and wouldn’t hold a position long with any 
house at a thousand dollars per year, to say nothing 
of five. 

To the bright salesman it is not a difficult task 
to map out a promising line of action for his career on 
the road from among the failures and middleweights, 
and a persevering hustle will do the rest. 

A shrewd, perceptive faculty, together with a 
convincing perseverance, is one of the main essentials 
to success in promoting any enterprise. 

Away with easy-going, rollicking ways and 
debauching influences! Away with small salaries, 
“water-tank” towns, and “one-night stands”! Let 
there be more lucrative fields and broader knowl¬ 
edge ! that is the twentieth-century salesman’s 
slogan; and that he is manfully living up to his 
battle-cry, the pay-rolls of large institutions all over 
this broad land will attest. 


[ 25 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER II 

PURE GRIT 

He who sleeps beneath the fruit tree must 
be contented with windfalls. The one who 
climbs the ladder plucks the choicest fruit. 

P URE Grit constitutes one of the most essential 
elements of successful salesmanship. It is the 
best there is in a man; it is that fine quality that 
whispers in our ear in moments of discouragement, 
“Never lie down.” When exhausted and sinking 
in the mire of Despond, it calls cheerily from the 
banks of Hope along the shore: “Don’t give up! 
I’ll pull you out.” 

It does not fall to the lot of the average man to 
have more hard knocks than he can stand. If he 
has Pure Grit and a sound heart, there is always 
open to him an avenue of escape, by which he can 
avoid the knock-out blow that would put him down 
and out for good. If he does lie down, there is a 
lack of manliness in him. 

The journey over the flinty pathway of the busi¬ 
ness life is not unlike a ride on a lumber-wagon over 
a roadway strewn with boulders in a mountainous 
country. There is a constant jolting and danger of 
being thrown from the seat; axles creak and groan as 
you rattle on over bogs and rocks; now and then a 
[ 26 ] 


Pure Grit 


precipitous plunge into one of Nature’s ditches 
causes a shiver to run through the stanch vehicle 
from stem to stern, but all goes well until a sharp 
turn in the road brings you face to face with a large 
boulder square in your path. Before you can rein 
up and put on brakes, snap goes the axle. You 
climb out to examine the break, and with an exclama¬ 
tion of dismay you wonder what you are going to do 
next; then, looking about in your perplexity, you see 
a blacksmith coming toward you in the form of a good 
genie, Pure Grit. You failed to notice him, his little 
shop having been hidden from view by the turn in 
the road. The damage repaired, with a smile of en¬ 
couragement the good genie sends you on your way 
rejoicing, cautioning you to drive more carefully. 
Everything goes all right for a time, but the journey 
grows tiresome and you relapse into carelessness, with 
a light grip on the rein; or, seeing a smooth strip 
ahead, you whip up* at a reckless pace, unmindful 
of the deep gully just beyond, until suddenly snap 
goes something else. This time the break is in all 
likelihood more serious. In despair, the realization 
is forced upon you that you are a long way from 
home, darkness is coming on, there is no shelter, 
nor any provisions for either man or beast. With 
many a misgiving you set about making repairs 
alone; it is hard work, and the experience is new 
and rough. You scarcely know how or where to 
[ 27 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

begin; the task seems a hopeless one. Just as the 
last hope is giving way, you look up and perceive 
standing before you in the doorway of his little shop 
the good genie, Pure Grit. He is beckoning you to 
come in; you wonder why you had not noticed him 
before. Once more he comes to the rescue and re¬ 
pairs the break, cautioning you the meanwhile to 
drive more carefully. You mount the seat more 
confident than ever that the road can hold no more 
terrors, but the good genie knows the road better than 
you do, and, not trusting you to drive alone this time, 
he climbs up on the seat by your side and rides along 
until he is convinced that you are determined to keep 
a sharp outlook to the end of the journey. 

Robert Collyer, in a famous lecture touching this 
subject, said: 

“ Clear grit is the power to say ‘No’ to what seem to be 
a multitude of angels, when they would counsel you away 
from a downright loyalty to your instant duty. . . Simply 
determine once for all that any torment for being a true 
man is to be perferred to any bliss for failing.” 

Mr. Collyer lived in Chicago when the popula¬ 
tion numbered about one hundred thousand. Dur¬ 
ing his twenty years’ residence there he became quite 
intimate with the life of that great city, and in the 
early times knew every man who had come to the 
front and was wielding a real power of any sort for 
good. He says: 


Pure Grit 


“I do not remember one among them who did not 
begin his life as a poor man’s son. They all came up, so 
far as I could trace them, without any good time at all 
excepting as boys ought to have a good time in growing 
strong as a steel bar on plenty of wholesome work and 
what we should call hard fare; fighting their way to an 
education through a great deal of effort, and then, when 
they are ready, coming out West from the East with that 
half-dollar in their pocket, and that little lot of things done 
up in a valise that you will notice every young fellow is said 
to start with who ends up by making his mark or making 
a fortune.” 

Perhaps the first characteristic of Pure Grit lies 
in the power to do a good honest day’s work; and 
this power to do a good honest day’s work lies at the 
root of every true life. 

And yet it is just what a great number of sales¬ 
men try not to do, as if they felt that the best thing is 
to get the most money possible for the least work 
possible, and very often for the poorest work possible 
too; and that the best success they can attain in this 
world is that which comes through what we call good 
luck. It seems as if young men began their life in 
this, the twentieth century, dazzled by “ get-rich- 
quick” opportunities that seem open before them 
on every hand. A few, a very few, seem to strike it 
“lucky,” but the great majority who coquette with 
the chances to get along easily, which seem as plenti¬ 
ful as flies in summer time, generally find themselves 
at last either in the penitentiary or the poorhouse. 

[ 29 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

They will try this and then that, and generally 
fail at everything they do try, if this is all they want 
to do; then they wait for something to turn up, in¬ 
stead of turning something up for themselves. .The 
man who sat down on a log, waiting to get warm 
enough to chop down a tree, froze to death. 

Commercial achievement does not come to the 
drone, neither is it a product of luck or chance. 

“ The career of every successful business man is 
a ladder of effort and results; and the strength of the 
effort is the measure of the result .” 

Luck and chance do not enter the struggle at 
any stage. 

Your present position may not be congenial; but 
all that can be changed, if you but set your goal-post 
far out in the field of endeavor and strive with all 
your might to reach it. 

The stock-boy that sets his mind on a general 
salesmanship position is bound to have his desire 
gratified. The general salesman that sets his mind 
on heading the list in sales of his house will as surely 
realize his ambition as the morning’s sun follows 
the deep shadows of night. 

“Where there is a will there is a way,” and that 
way is not the way of the thoughtless, the ignorant, 
and the indolent, but is the way of the striving, the 
intelligent, and the ambitious. 

How well I remember my first employer! He 
[ 30 ] 


Pure Grit 


was the hardest taskmaster in the world, I thought, 
when I got my start in life; but now I know he was 
one of the best. I would prefer to write about your 
experiences, but, not knowing them, I hope you will 
be interested in mine. 

No experience of my lifetime has been so thor¬ 
oughly and indelibly stamped upon my memory as 
was my first three years with the wholesale dry-goods 
house of S. L. & Co., of Detroit, my boyhood home 
town. I began at three dollars per week, with a raise 
of one dollar in the second year, and two the third. I 
had the linen and white-goods stock. The work was 
heavy, and the hours were long. We had it drilled 
into us in those days that orderliness was — if not 
next to godliness — next to the next step in promo¬ 
tion. We were taught that a good stock-keeper was 
a logical candidate for a house salesmanship; after 
which, the road. 

There was no standing around in cliques dis¬ 
cussing the latest sporting edition, no prevailing idea, 
as now, that working when there was nothing to do 
was a mere pretence for work. Idleness amounted 
almost to a crime then; it does now, but plenty of 
young men do not realize this truth. 

The covers removed from the piles of goods, the 
dusting finished, which took about an hour, for it 
had to be done thoroughly, bringing down the re¬ 
serve stock was next in order. The tables rearranged 
[ 31 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

we set about repairing broken covers of boxes, or 
we re-wrapped goods which had been in stock a long 
time. Everything had to be spotless and in apple- 
pie order; so when this result was attained we started 
in to dust all over again, even polishing the edges of 
tables and counters with a cloth. There was keen 
rivalry among the boys to see whose stock could be 
made to look the best. By the middle of the fore¬ 
noon work began to get pretty scarce, but there was 
no getting away from it, for if one of us began to take 
an idle stroll in the next boy’s stock, the floor man¬ 
ager would appear around the corner of an aisle to 
make his usual morning inspection. It used to 
bother us a great deal to know how he figured out 
to spot us right to a dot, which he did with unerring 
accuracy. 

Having satisfied himself that there was really 
nothing more of importance to do, he would order an 
entire table of goods to be torn down and rearranged. 
We hated him for it, but it was good exercise and 
kept us out of mischief, the twin brother of idleness, 
besides teaching us the lesson of “ everlastingly keep¬ 
ing at it,” which was then, as it is now, one of the 
cardinal principles of success. But there is a vast 
difference now as to the modus operandi. 

There were no janitors or scrub-women in those 
days. Twice a week each stock-boy was obliged to 
sprinkle and sweep the floor in his stock, and even 
[ 32 ] 



Pure Grit 


wash the windows and clean the woodwork. We 
rather balked at this; it hurt our pride a little, but 
beyond that no harm was done. 

Things have changed; whether for better or 
worse must be argued elsewhere. One thing is 
certain, the bright, industrious stock-boys of a decade 
or two ago are the successful merchants and salesmen 
of to-day. History repeats itself, and no doubt the 
future will take care of itself; but a grave danger 
confronts the merchant in the too rapid promotion 
of the boys in stock, the tendency being to “ nip the 
flower in the bud.” There is plenty of good raw 
material, but too rapid growth and not enough care 
in selection. The demand for high-grade men is 
ever on the increase; it behooves the boys in the 
ranks to keep their feet on the ground,— which is 
the humble position the rest of us occupy,— to have 
something to set them down on when they become 
tired. 

My first desire to sell goods amounted to almost 
a longing. It attacked me early. I had been wres¬ 
tling with dry-goods boxes and feather dusters for 
about a year and a half, when all of a sudden the 
seed burst forth, unfolding the petals of a new life, 
the freedom and brilliancy of which fairly dazzled 
me, young as I was. 

One day a handsome, finely attired chap, with 
a flow of English that sounded to me like a lesson in 
[ 33 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

rhetoric, appeared in the store. He hailed from 
New York with a line of linens. When he encoun¬ 
tered the buyer in my department, there com¬ 
menced at once a contest of wits that to this day I 
have never heard equalled. 

Sheltered by a pile of friendly damask, I eagerly 
listened to all that was said, making mental blue¬ 
prints of the whole dialogue, even jotting down some 
of the good points. In the selling-talk of that dapper 
salesman lurked the germs of a new life for me. I 
became inoculated with a burning desire to do some¬ 
thing and be something; the determination to be¬ 
come a salesman seized me on the spot; my future 
was sealed; I knew it, felt it, breathed it, and was 
content to bask in the rays of its stimulating influence. 

I was at the foot of the mountain, and the way 
up looked steep and strewn with boulders, but the 
strength of my determination made the pathway 
seem easy and gave me a glimpse of the glorious out¬ 
look at the top. 

At last an opportunity came to make my first 
step. It was just a little one, so small that some 
would have passed it by, not realizing that it really 
was an opportunity. It happened that one of the 
house salesmen who looked after the German trade 
had a small customer from a side street in the house 
buying white goods. Having been called away to 
meet a more important buyer, he turned his little 
[ 34 ] 


Pure Grit 


customer over to me with the joking side remark, 
“ Sell him a good bill, my boy. He ’s good for it,” 
and was gone. I was frightened half out of my wits 
at being left alone for the first time with a real cus¬ 
tomer. I had handled many in fancy since the great 
event of the New York salesman’s visit. I stood 
for a moment helpless and undecided, but was 
promptly brought to by Hans, who, having noticed 
my backwardness, said with some spirit, “ Vill you 
do me sometings ? ” The spark ignited the powder, 
and the way I lighted into that poor little side-street 
merchant was worthy of better results than the 
amount of his bill afterwards showed. I had my 
notebook to prompt me with my New York friend’s 
ideas, and many a furtive glance I stole at it when 
Hans was not looking. He must have thought I 
was suffering with St. Vitus’s dance, for the contor¬ 
tions of salesmanship I went through in a vain effort 
to make him take two pieces of bird’s-eye linen in 
place of one would, with a little more polish and 
experience, have landed a contract for a suspension 
bridge. 

Two years of waiting, and my dream became a 
reality when I secured a position on the road with a 
neighboring wholesale millinery house, and my cup 
of happiness was filled to overflowing at the thought 
of becoming a real salesman and closing the old life 
forever. 


[ 35 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

I was fortunate in securing a little business in 
my first town, and when I had finished writing and 
mailing the order to the house that night, I went up 
to my room and literally threw up my hat in giving 
vent to my feelings. I regarded my subsequent 
sales for weeks as corner-stones in the superstruc¬ 
ture of my building toward success, and the final 
results of each month, whether large or small, as 
filling-in stones to its completion. 

My salary contract for one year was at six 
hundred dollars. The salesman ahead of me was 
getting one thousand, and I said to myself I must 
have that much next year. It seemed a fortune, 
and the thought was ever with me that if I could 
earn one thousand dollars per year I would have 
reached the end of the rainbow. Having secured 
that, I wanted fifteen hundred, then eighteen hun¬ 
dred. Finally arriving at two thousand five hundred, 
I paused and looked back over the six preceding 
years in an effort to measure the future by the past. 
The thought occurred to me that but one-third of 
my life had been spent in climbing, figuring it from 
the usual estimate of “ threescore years and ten”; 
and why stop there ? The mountain was high, and 
the distance to the top yet a long way up. 

That was years ago, and I expect to keep on 
climbing until I die. But I have not engaged to 
write a history of my life. In passing, I wish merely 
[ 36 ] 


Pure Grit 


to emphasize the words of James Allen in his most 
excellent little book, “As a Man Thinketh”: 

“Into your hands will be placed the exact results of 
your efforts. You will receive that which you earn — no 
more, no less. Whatever your present circumstances 
might be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your efforts, 
your visions, your aim. 

“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. 
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing 
only the apparent effect of things, and not the things 
themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and of chance. Seeing 
a man grow rich, they say, ‘ How lucky he is! ’ Observing 
another becoming intelligent, they exclaim, ‘How highly 
fortunate he is!’ 

“They do not see the trials, the failures, the struggles 
which these have encountered; have no knowledge of the 
sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they 
have put forth that they may overcome the apparently 
insurmountable, and realize the goal of their ambition. 
They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; only 
see the light and joy, and call it ‘luck’; do not see the long 
and arduous journey, but only the pleasant goal, and call 
it ‘good fortune’; do not understand the process, but 
only perceive the result, and call it ‘chance.’ ” 

Successful salesmanship is the product of intelli¬ 
gent , earnest effort. There is no serving two masters, 
Indolence and Industry. It is climb, climb, climb, 
all the way, exercising watchful care; but the summit 
of the mountain is your reward. The pleasure is not 
all in winning, by any means; the real exhilarating 
fun, or two-thirds of it, is in the climbing. 

Self-deception is responsible for more than 
[ 37 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

three-fourths of the so-called “ unexplained failures ” 
in salesmanship. Many salesmen in the race for 
success explain their shortcomings as they do in a 
game of ten-pins. If they fail to win, something is 
wrong with the alley, or the pins are not spotted, or 
their arm is out of whack. The trouble is never with 
themselves. 

You cannot afford to fool yourself. Your suc¬ 
cess depends absolutely upon the amount of skill 
and energy you throw into your work. 

If you are always on the anxious seat about your 
position, the fault is with yourself, not with your 
house, your territory, or your line. Just as the poor 
workman always finds fault with his tools, so does 
the poor salesman complain of his surroundings. 

Your light will not be hid under a bushel, your 
capabilities will be recognized. The good salesman 
will succeed with a weak line and a poor territory, 
and then hunt around for something better with 
which to fit the growth of his expanding powers; but 
the poor salesman is a poor salesman still. The 
best line in the universe cannot supply the missing 
link in his negative make-up. 

Don’t imagine you are kept down by lack of 
your employer’s appreciation. If you do, you fool 
yourself, and will remain a dwarf forever. 

Of all the disgruntled failures, those who de¬ 
serve the least sympathy are the ones who gather in 
[ 38 ] 


Pure Grit 


foolish little cliques, praise each other, deceive each 
other, and fool themselves. It is a great thing to 
know yourself and acknowledge your mistakes. 

Have faith in your own ability to win . Cut 
loose from the weakness that prompts you to say: 

“I am not appreciated“I have had bad luck 
all my life”; “Others have had a better chance”; 
“I wish I could have the good fortune of Jones or 
Smith or Brown.” 

Remember that there may be undiscovered 
diamonds in your own back yard. 

Determine that in your case you will not recog¬ 
nize failure, and that ‘‘explanation is damnation.” 

Success lies in your ability to discover and apply 
your own powers. Excuses and the admission of 
failure are the thieves that rob you of your strength, 
causing you to play against yourself and fool yourself 
in the bargain. 

A salesman is what his spirit and his determina¬ 
tion are. Nothing hurts except that which weakens 
our minds by weakening our courage. 

The salesman should say, “I will stand what 
comes, I won't give in. No matter what the dis¬ 
couragements, I am going to climb this mountain 
Success, from the bottom up, just as well as I know 
how. No matter what happens, I am going to reach 
the top, if possible, with just as much Pure Grit as I 
had when I began the journey.” 

[39f 


Men Who Sell Things 

The “Chicago Examiner,” in an editorial on 
Courage, related the following story: 

In this street of Life, walking in the darkness of the 
shadow, hungry old Satan was out hunting with his dogs, 
the little imps of human weakness. 

A man came walking through Life’s street. 

Satan said to the little devil, with a bitter face, “Go, 
get him for me.” 

Quickly the imp crossed the street, silently and lightly 
hopped to the man’s shoulder. Close in his ear he whis¬ 
pered : 

“You are discouraged.” 

“No,” said the man, “I am not discouraged.” 

“You are discouraged.” 

The man replied this time, “I do not think I am.” 

Louder and more decidedly the little imp said again: 
“I tell you you are discouraged.” 

The man dropped his head and replied: “Well, I 
suppose I am.” 

The imp hopped back to Satan, and said proudly; 
“I have got him, he is discouraged.” 

Another man passed. Again old Satan said, “Get 
him for me.” 

The proud little demon of discouragement repeated 
his tactics. 

The first time that he said, “You are discouraged,” 
the man replied emphatically, “No.” 

The second time the man replied, “ I tell you I am not 
discouraged.” 

The third time he said: “I am not discouraged. 
You lie.” 

The man walked down the street, his head up, going 
toward the light. 

The imp of discouragement returned to his master 
crestfallen. 

[ 40] 


Pure Grit 


“I could n’t get him. Three times I told him he was 
discouraged. The third time he called me a liar, and that 
discouraged me.” 

Make up your mind, Mr. Salesman, that the 
little demon whispering discouragement in your ear 
shall always get from you the answer, “You lie.” 

Temporary reverses are good for the spirit, 
strengthening to the mind; not calamities, but real 
benefits, if we receive them in the proper spirit. 

A certain business man told the following story 
of a clerk in his establishment. The clerk was asked 
why he remained in a poorly paid position when, by 
working a little harder and taking a little more inter¬ 
est in the business, he might get into a place that 
would lead to a salary three or four times as large as 
he was receiving. 

“Oh,” he said, “there’s no chance for a fellow 
to make a hit here; all the good positions are taken, 
and whenever there’s a prospective vacancy there 
are three or four fellows waiting to step into it. No; 
it ’s a poor chance a fellow has here; so what’s the 
use of killing yourself ? I’m not such a fool; I’m 
just hanging on here until I get something better. 
I’ve got my lines out in two or three places, places 
where there are plenty of good chances for a fellow 
to start in and dig his way up. Just as soon as I 
get answers to my applications you ’ll see me get out 
of here so quickly that it ’ll make your head swim to 
[41] 


Men Who Sell Things 

watch me. When I get into a good job in one of 
these other places is when I ’ll begin to work. What’s 
the use killing yourself here ? There’s no chance for 
you.” 

What a delusion! Poor dunce, playing against 
yourself and fooling yourself! Employers are not 
looking for professional floaters; and if you cannot 
succeed where you are, you will never succeed any¬ 
where. The place you are in right now is just the 
place for you, if you mean business. If you don't, 
you will not be wanted long anywhere. From this 
very class of young men is recruited the vast army of 
ne’er-do-wells. You must first prove to your own 
satisfaction and that of your employer that you are 
a success at what you are doing, before you can hope 
for something better. 

The salesmen who are travelling on limited 
trains, making large cities, living in first-class hotels, 
and drawing monthly pay-checks beginning with the 
figure 3 and up and ending with two ciphers, 
started where you are and stuck to it. 

Where are you on the mountain, reader? If 
you have climbed for all you are worth and feel tired 
and a trifle discouraged, look up; safety is there. 
Remember when on an eminence there is danger in 
looking down. If the way is more rugged than you 
thought, do not give up. You may still have reserve 
strength that you know not of. No man can tell 
[42] 


Pure Grit 


what he can do until he tries. And it is a moral cer¬ 
tainty that “ the reason why most men do not accom¬ 
plish more is because they do not attempt more.” 

Cast off the dead weight that is dragging you 
down; throw overboard every pound of unnecessary 
ballast; let yourself soar in the thought that you 
possess powers that are yet undiscovered. Make a 
draft on your reserve force. Exercise new faith in 
yourself and your surroundings. You cannot navi¬ 
gate far without faith, and some of the best of sales¬ 
men have gone down for lack of it. Cut away from 
the influences and the company that can do you no 
good. Seek only the approval of those above you in 
authority , and you will surely win success. 




[ 43 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER III 

THE KNOCKER 

The man who tears down reputations 
always gets most of the dirt himself. 

What a jolly world of grand morals this 
woidd be if every man came up to the stand¬ 
ard of perfection he fixes for his neighbor! 

S OME one has said: “ There are but two kinds of 
young men, those that are good, and those that 
are no good.” 

This scarcely applies to salesmen, for there are 
many kinds in between. 

To which class do you belong ? 

We have the Knocker, the Order-taker, the 
Wheelbarrow, the Sky-rocket, the Fussy or Over¬ 
anxious, the Quick-tempered, the Know-it-all, the 
Old-timer, and a few others with accompaniments 
not altogether in the nature of selling-assets. 

In the whole category of men who sell things, 
the one whom the novice should strive to imitate is 
the well-rounded, strictly up-to-the-minute business- 
getter. Such a one is at once ambassador, minister 
plenipotentiary, and promoter of his house. 

The salesman who is worthy of his profession 
is not only the ambassador of his house, he is in real¬ 
ity the house itself, when he is out in the field. His 
[ 44 ] 


The Knocker 


every word and action should be clothed with a dig¬ 
nity suitable to the work with which he is intrusted. 

In the natural course of business events, it is 
generally found that large institutions which employ 
many travellers are able to secure the services of 
enough really capable ones to make the general aver¬ 
age good. If this were not so, and they were obliged 
to draw their entire selling-strength from the list of 
misfits mentioned above, they would very shortly 
find a padlock on the front door and the sheriff in 
charge. 

When one government sends an ambassador to 
^another, a man is selected for the mission who has 
stood high in the community, and who is endowed 
with peculiar ability to perform the duties. If a 
mistake is made, and he is found to be lacking in the 
necessary qualifications, such as tact, honesty, or 
loyalty to duty, he is promptly recalled and his place 
filled by another. Or, if he lacks ability only, he 
may wake up some fine morning to find that he has 
been relegated to some unimportant post in an out- 
of-the-way country. 

But to return to salesmen. Beginning with the 
Knocker and taking them in order, we find them an 
interesting and heterogeneous group. 

The Knocker is the most obnoxious type, and 
is branded at once as the most useless. He can 
scarcely be rated as an asset in the selling staff, unless 
[ 45 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

we take him in the inventory at a discount of ninety 
per cent. The remaining ten per cent might be 
realized upon as a job lot, to be sold out in the first 
clearance sale that comes along. 

The editor of “The Philistine” says: “Knock¬ 
ing is criticism, and without criticism there is no 
advancement.” 

In making that statement he certainly was not 
speaking of salesmen, or he would have said, “Knock¬ 
ing is robbery, and the thief is a parasite.” 

The knocking salesman should not pray, with 
the Pharisees, “ O Lord, make other men as we are,” 
but rather, “Let us see ourselves as others see us.” 
If the latter prayer were granted, they would take the 
shortest cut possible to the nearest oculist to have 
their eyes fitted with long-distance, clear-seeing 
glasses to replace their blue goggles of doubt, hate, 
and suspicion. 

The Knocker reminds me in some of his phases 
of the story of the man down in the spring branch 
trying to clear the water so that he could get a 
pure drink. He was doing all he could to filter 
the water, when some friend called out to him: 
“ Stranger, come up a little higher and run that hog 
out of the spring, and it will clear itself.” 

No trouble then. The hardest work a man ever 
undertakes in this world is to try to lift himself up 
while trying to pull his brother down. It is like 
[ 46 ] 


The Knocker 


trying to pull yourself out of a quicksand; the more 
you try to work free from it, the deeper you sink. 
There is no such thing as boosting yourself by 
knocking some one else. 

Did you ever look at yourself from head to foot 
— look at yourself as a salesman ? 

Did you ever wake up in the morning and shut 
your eyes and lie still and say: ‘‘Well, suppose every 
salesman in the house were just like me, what sort 
of a house would we have ? Suppose every salesman 
in our house knocked as much as I knock, what sort 
of a house would we have ? Suppose every salesman 
in the house worked as little as I work, how long be¬ 
fore the whole thing would go into bankruptcy ? ” 

It is well now and then to get a square, honest 
look at yourself. 

What sort of a salesman are you ? 

A salesman’s tongue has a great deal to do with 
his salesmanship; or, rather, a salesman’s salesman¬ 
ship has a great deal to do with his tongue. 

The Knocker’s tongue is full of deadly poison. 
It is sharp-edged and treacherous as an ever-ready 
stiletto. 

Sit beside the victim of the Knocker. Put your 
ear to his heart, and you can hear a steady drip, drip, 
drip, as of blood from a gaping wound. 

“ What did that ?” you say. His reply is: “ An 
unkind tongue wounded it there.” 

[ 47 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The meanest man on earth is the one who will 
wound a man's character with his tongue. 

The Knocker is no respecter of persons; he 
knocks the credit man, knocks the buyer, knocks 
the sales manager, knocks his fellow-travellers; in 
fact, he knocks everything and everybody in the place, 
from office boy to president. He even knocks his 
own interests. Every one but the Knocker him¬ 
self knows that “the dog that will carry a bone will 
fetch a bone”; but as a temporary mischief-maker 
he causes “Maud,” the mule of comic-newspaper 
fame, to appear to have creeping paralysis when com¬ 
pared with him as to their relative kicking merits. 

Knocking is a habit, and a bad one. Don’t 
acquire it. If you do, some day you will give your¬ 
self a knock-out blow. Remember the old saying, 
The man who attends to his own business has not 
time to attend to the business of others. 

Now, recollect, if you are a salesman and 
love your house, everything you cannot help, every¬ 
thing you would have warded off if you could, 
everything you would have conquered if you 
could, everything in the salesman’s life except dis¬ 
honesty— and knocking is a form of dishonesty — 
works for good; and no power on earth can make 
this negative quality work for anybody’s good, 
because dishonesty is the reversal, the throwing out 
of gear, of the machinerv of our nature. 

[ 48 ] 


The Knocker 


When we begin to undermine the honest efforts 
of others, we reverse the machinery of our nature 
and run it backwards. You can no more do good 
work for your house when you reverse the machinery 
of your nature than you can make a lawn-mower cut 
grass when you run it backwards. One is as impos¬ 
sible as the other. All things work for your good 
when you are running in harmony with your house 
and in line with your house. 

When you walk up to a piano and touch a key, 
and that key is out of tune and out of harmony, it 
is out of harmony not only with the rest of the keys 
of the piano, but with everything in the universe that 
is in harmony with them. But when the piano- 
tuner walks up to the piano and opens it, and takes 
out his instruments and works away at that particu¬ 
lar string, he restores the harmony that was lost. 
And success lies in getting into harmony with your 
house. Then everything moves along harmoniously, 
adjusting and setting the rules of the house to music. 
Is it not so ? 

When your firm bids you do this or that, the 
command should immediately touch a responsive 
chord in your nature in sympathy with the work in 
hand, and then you are in harmony, which makes 
easy of accomplishment the most difficult task. 
Your house wills it, and they will do their part to 
make your daily efforts conduce to your final success. 

[ 49 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

When you are tempted to believe that your 
house is going straight to perdition, and that you are 
the only man on the premises who can save it, think 
of the incident that occurred in 1864 in the adminis¬ 
tration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the 
United States. The political aspect of the whole 
country was that of a seething, boiling Niagara. 
Some gentlemen from the West were excited about 
the commissions or omissions of the Administration. 
President Lincoln heard them patiently, and then 
replied: “Gentlemen, suppose all the property you 
were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the 
hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River 
on a rope; would you shake the cable or keep 
shouting out to him, ‘Blondin, stand up a little 
straighter!’ ‘Blondin, stoop a little more!’ ‘Go a 
little faster!’ ‘Lean a little more to the south!’ 
‘Blondin, lean a little more to the north’ ? No; you 
would hold your breath, as well as your tongue, and 
keep your hand off until he was safe over. The 
Government is carrying an immense weight. Un¬ 
told treasures are in our hands. Keep silence, and 
we ’ll get you safe across.” 

Knocking or “kicking” salesmen classify them¬ 
selves as among the reform forces. 

Inasmuch as their object seems to be the imme¬ 
diate reformation of the entire business world, they 
are hopelessly beyond argument, and therefore the 


The Knocker 


best course for a sensible salesman to pursue with 
regard to them is to leave them alone, and let them 
kick. They don’t suggest any remedies, but they 
just kick, and there are always a few of the weaker 
sort standing around to give them encouragement 
and assistance. 

To reform the whole earth and make it over 
different is a job that only the saints can tackle. 

Speaker Cannon, of the House of Representa¬ 
tives, paid more attention during the political cam¬ 
paign of 1906 to the reform forces than to any other 
faction. 

“We have had ten years,” said he, “of unin¬ 
terrupted prosperity under the management of the 
Republican party, but in spite of this there are here 
and there among our eighty-five millions of people 
kickers whose vanity leads them to believe they 
could manage things much better if they had the 

chance.We used to have a mule, and when 

we used to put him in the log barn and give him 
a full feed of oats, as soon as he had eaten the oats 
he’d begin to kick and bray. We never could figure 
out whether he was braying because he was kicking, 
or kicking because he was braying. But all we did 
was to keep out of the barn and let him kick and 
bray all he wanted to.” 

That’s all you can do with the kickers — let 
them alone. They are beyond reasoning with. 

[51] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Your house has enough to take up all its atten¬ 
tion with things that are happening every day, with¬ 
out bothering about things that can’t be mended or 
with things that are going to happen some time in 
the future, except, perhaps, to ask your resignation 
if you can’t break the habit of knocking. 

What you have to do is to take care of the things 
that are within the sphere of your duty , and you will 
have no time to bother about things that do not con¬ 
cern you. That’s what your house is doing, and 
what the men are doing who head the sales list in 
your house. 

The Knocker is bad enough, but his friends 
who stand around in foolish little cliques encourag¬ 
ing him are no better. He at least has the courage 
of his convictions, such as they are, while those 
others stay around in the dark and act as cat’s paw 
to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. 

The Knocker is of the least account in the entire 
group of negative salesmen. The others try to 
amount to something in their own way, but he has 
been mean ever since he was born. 

In reviewing them all, I want you to understand 
— if you are a Knocker — that you are worse than 
a hundred of the poorest salesmen put together. 

The most stupid Knocker of the entire kicking 
class is the one who seems to take peculiar delight 
in running down his competitors. 

[ 52 ] 


The Knocker 


There is no surer help to the efforts of a sales¬ 
man than that which comes through speaking well 
of his rivals in business whenever opportunity pre¬ 
sents itself, and that not merely in the sense implied 
by the witty preacher who said, while seeking a 
goodly collection from a large audience, “In order 
to get a good collection nowadays an audience must 
be assured beyond a reasonable doubt that it will get 
back two dollars for every one put in the box/’ 
Kindness for kindness’ sake alone is its own reward. 

When I was about to make my first trip on the 
road, my employer came to me and said: “I hope 

you can sell Mr. - at -. If you succeed in 

getting a bill there, we will give you a long credit 
mark. As yet no man calling from our house has 
been able to interest him.” 

On my arrival there, I was given a cold recep¬ 
tion. Quite naturally, I was anxious to land an 
order, as can well be imagined; but like the rest, 
I failed, and was greatly crestfallen over my defeat. 

I kept on drumming that customer, determined 
that I would get him sooner or later. About the 
time of my fourth visit he surprised me by saying: 
“I need some goods to-day. If you have what I 
want, you ’ll get a good order.” 

When he had finished looking through my 
sample line, he turned to me with, “Do you know 
why I am giving you a trial ? ” 

[ 53 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

I told him I supposed it was because 1 had hap¬ 
pened along when he was out of goods. 

“ Well/’ said he, “that is only part of the reason. 
The first time you called at my place you asked me 
what house I traded with mostly, and you spoke so 
highly of them that I made up my mind you would 
give me a square deal if you had a chance.” 

I sold that man goods until he retired from busi¬ 
ness, ten years later, and he was one of the best 
friends I had. 

President Roosevelt, in his last message to Con¬ 
gress, said: “ Science in business is advanced as 
never before. No one of us can make the world 
move on very far, but it moves at all only when 
each one of a very large number does his duty. 
Our duty is not in doing what we think is best, or 
what is best for ourselves, but in doing what is best 
for the common good of all.” 

There are people who believe that criticism and 
fault-finding are indicative of wisdom, and that the 
man who performs his daily task quietly and without 
murmur is lacking in the substantial qualities of 
mind. To be disparaged is the penalty Brilliance 
must ever pay to Dulness. 

psychologist tells us: “In each human being 
there are four personalities, namely; first, John as 
he is known to himself; second, John as he is known 
to his friends; third, John as he is known to his 
[ 54 ] 


The Knocker 


enemies; fourth, the real John, who is known only 
to his Maker, and on whom every deed of the other 
Johns leaves its impress for good or evil. Those 
who love us see us at our best, and only by striving 
the soul grows stronger” 

However perfect a piece of mechanism may be, 
it must be kept well oiled, in order that it may per¬ 
form its functions properly. In the same manner 
the house and its salesmen must fit together and work 
harmoniously; yet none the less there will occa¬ 
sionally be found external and internal causes which 
create friction or clog the wheels. 

The “ petty dust ” of daily business life is more 
than apt to upset the mental machinery, and the best 
lubricant is to be found in tact combined with humor. 
A kind word or thoughtful silence, which sometimes 
is better than speech, a boost in place of a knock, 
each has its place in keeping the wheels of com¬ 
merce running smoothly along the roadway of busi¬ 
ness life. So that, after all, the conclusion of the 
whole matter may be found in the old rule, “Do 
unto others as you would have others do unto you.” 

Boost, brother, boost! Don’t knock. 

“ What a mighty power there is that regulation of 
an establishment secured by cheerful willingness among 
all concerned to carry out the laws; a willingness that 
makes every member of the organization an agent in the 
interests of its common good!” 

[ 55 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“ In the mud and scum of things, 

Something always, always sings.” 

“ Drop an unkind word, or careless — in a minute it is gone, 

And there’s half a hundred ripples circling on, and on, and 
on; 

They keep spreading, spreading, spreading from the centre 
as they go, 

And there ain’t no way to stop them, once you’ve started 
them to flow. 

Drop an unkind word, or careless — in a minute you forget, 

But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples cir¬ 
cling yet; 

And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears 
you’ve stirred, 

And disturbed a life that’s happy, when you dropped 
that unkind word.” 


[ 56 ] 


The Order-Taker 


CHAPTER IV 

THE ORDER-TAKER 

It*8 a good thing for the man who looks at 
the corns on his hands to remember that 
on Easy Street the corns are on the heart . 

T HE Order-taker and the Drone are identical. 

Men of this stamp while waiting for an in¬ 
spiration would find success at once, if they were 
not so afraid of a little perspiration. 

The Salesman goes out and digs up business, 
while the Order-taker just shambles around, waiting 
to be fed, like the hippopotamus in the menagerie. 
The only difference is that his capacity is more 
limited. Even having things thrown to him worries 
and wearies him. Mental or physical courage is 
lacking in his make-up to the extent that anything 
like effort of any sort is foreign to his comprehension 
when it is necessary to go after business. 

As says the rag-time song, the Drone aimlessly 
wanders through life in the atmosphere of — “ I 
don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.” 
He is bright enough in many respects, but a natural 
born ne’er-do-well. 

Imagine a salesman with just sufficient energy 
to send out advance cards and check trunks from 
one town to another; whose sole ambition seems 
[ 57 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

centred in drawing his breath and his pay, and 
you have a life-size picture of the Order-taker. 

The Order-taker drops out of the race at the 
first wayside shelter on the slope of Mount Success; 
but he is a different type from the Knocker, as he 
does no actual harm, though he fails to get anywhere. 
Besides, knocking requires energy, even if perverted. 
The mediocre capacity must be eked out by brave 
resolve and persistent effort. 

When the old lady was training her son for the 
trapeze, the boy made three or four rather inef¬ 
fectual efforts to get over the bar. Then she was 
heard to suggest: “John Henry Hobbs, if you 
will lust throw your heart over the bar, your body 
will follow.” 

And thus it is with the salesman who is inclined 
to take things easy. Ij he will fust throw his heart 
into his work, success will follow, and then he will 
see the employer’s and employee’s interests going 
forward hand in hand, as they should go, supporting 
each other. 

William Matthews, at one time Professor of 
English Literature in the Chicago University, 
writing on the subject Self-reliance, in “ Getting On 
in the World,” says: 

“A lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks, 
has not instinct and energy enough to work his way back to 
the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does 
[ 58 ] 


The Order-Taker 


not come, he remains where he is, and dies, although the 
slightest effort would enable him to reach the waves, which 
are perhaps tossing and tumbling within a yard of him.” 

The world is full of human lobsters, men 
stranded on the rocks of business, who, instead of 
putting forth their own energies, are waiting for 
some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat. 
There are many young men of vivid imaginations, 
who, instead of carrying their own burdens, are 
always dreaming of some Hercules coming to give 
them a lift. 

“ The hardest fortune of all is to find fortune 
easily” 

Good hard work is one of the richest blessings 
that God has given man. The Idler, the Drone, the 
Order-taker, or whatever we may choose to call 
him, either in salesmanship or out of it,— the man 
who fails to make the most of his privilege to work 
and amount to something,— sins not only against 
his Maker, but against himself and society. 

Many an otherwise good salesman has remained 
all his life in the light-weight class, solely because he 
lacked faith in himself. 

“ Faith is the lever that moves mountains.” 

“ Faith is not faith until it gets into your fingers 
and your feet.” 

Faith begets faith. The salesman who has 
faith in himself has faith in his territory and faith 
[ 59 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

in his house. His employers and his customers, 
seeing the strength of his position, place their faith 
in him also. 

There is no standard broad enough or.high 
enough with which to measure the value of faith 
in the commercial world. It is the Alpha and 
Omega of all business activity. It is the guiding 
star, shedding its beams of trust, confidence, good¬ 
will, and good-cheer along the pathway of every 
successful transaction, large or small. There can 
be absolutely no trade without faith; hence, its 
indispensableness as a commercial asset. 

The salesman of little faith in himself is not 
only enveloped in doubt and mistrust, so far as his 
ability to win for himself is concerned, but his faith 
in his proposition, his employers, and his fellow- 
workers hangs in the balance, reducing his chances 
for success to the minimum. He is apt to be peevish, 
ill-natured, and enshrouded in an atmosphere of 
insecurity, and he soon drops into oblivion or joins 
the large class of “floaters” who are continually 
looking for a job. 

A salesman , to succeed , must not only have faith 
in himself , but faith in the article he is selling. He 
should approach his customer in such a manner as 
to leave no room for doubt that he himself believes 
what he says of the article he has to sell. 

In a salesman of this character, faith is the 

[ 60 ] 


The Order- Taker 


source of courage, industry, and perseverance. It 
makes for him a strong personality. He surmounts 
all troubles by dint of his own energy. His name 
spells S-U-C-C-E-S-S. 

Some one has said: “The trouble with too 
many young men is that their wishbones are where 
their backbones ought to be.” 

A practical psychologist asks the question: 

“Did you ever say ‘I can* and T will ’ with the strong 
feeling that you spoke the truth? If so, you then felt 
within you the thrill which seems to cause eveiy atom of 
your being to vibrate in harmony with some note in the 
grand scale of life which has been sounded by the I AM — 
the real self. 

“ If so, you caught a momentary glimpse of the inner 
light; heard a note of the song of the soul; were conscious 
for a moment of yourself, and in that moment you knew 
that untold power and possibilities were yours. You felt 
somehow that you were in touch with the Source of all 
strength, knowledge, happiness, and peace. You felt that 
you were equal to any task, capable of executing any un¬ 
dertaking. All the universe seemed to vibrate in the same 
key with your thought.” 

Sam Jones, the famous Southern wit, lecturing 
on Faith, once said: 

“You well know what it is to pull on a cold collar. 
It takes a good tame horse to do it. You hitch him up of a 
cold, frosty morning, hitch him to a big load, and he sets 
to and pulls it off like a mule. That is what we call a work 
of faith, it is pulling on a cold collar. That kind of horse 
you can hitch to a tree on a frosty morning, and he will 
[ 61 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

make a hundred set pulls at it. That is what we call a 
work of faith,— pulling on a cold collar. 

“I knew a fellow once who had a wagon-load of wood 
to haul to camp, and it was a cold morning. He hitched up 
his horses, but they would not pull a pound. He. put a 
boy on each horse, and then ran them up and down, riding 
about two or three miles, and got them warmed up, and 
then hitched them up, and they pulled right off.” 

A dog will run a rabbit when he feels like 
doing it, and when he does n’t feel like it he 
won’t. 

A salesman of faith will show you what he is by 
what he does. If you will find me a salesman who 
is busy for his house, I will show you a salesman that 
has works of faith and will do his duty whether he 
feels like it or not. 

Some salesmen think that if they do a thing 
when they do not feel like it, they are hypocrites. 
Well, we will talk about that some other time. 

“ I feel it is my duty to do so and so.” 

Sing it out; you have heard such salesmen, 
haven’t you ? 

I tell you what it is: to a real live wide-awake 
salesman, his work is a pleasure; it is a privilege. 
All others should keep in mind the business aphor¬ 
ism, “ They who do no more than they are paid for 
get paid for no more than they do.” 

You know, when they first built engines, they 
put only two wheels on them. They would run and 
[ 62 ] 


The Order-Taker 


make schedule time, but schedule time was only 
just three miles an hour, and it was all they could do 
to pull one car. After a while they put a jack 
under that engine and put eight more wheels under 
it, making ten in all; and that engine will cut 
along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, and will pull 
forty cars if you couple them on. 

And then came the “great moguls”; those 
great living, snorting, prancing things of finest steel, 
with a speed of seventy, or eighty miles an hour. 
That is the difference between the little two-wheeled 
fellow and the sort they run now. That is the dif¬ 
ference between the Order-taker and the profes¬ 
sional salesman. There are plenty of little two- 
wheelers in the business world. Brother, cut that 
two-wheeled business out, if you ever hope to make 
a schedule of more than three miles an hour. 

What would you think of a man starting from 
home who would go trotting down the railroad on 
foot ? You ask him why he does n’t take the cars, 
and he answers: “Well, I feel it is my duty to go 
on foot.” 

I remember very well one of these two-wheeled 
men. He crossed my path when I had been out on 
the road about three or four years. It was a “Ships- 
that-pass-in-the-night ” sort of experience, which 
leaves behind the shadowy impression that some¬ 
thing crossed your bow in the fading light, but you 
[ 63 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

could not make out just what manner of craft it 
was, or where it hailed from. 

I had been out on my advance trip with a line 
of ostrich goods and velvets, and was winding up 
the last week of an unusually successful Fall business, 
when I was suddenly stricken with a serious case of 
blood-poisoning, contracted from opening a water- 
blister on my hand with a rusty knife-blade. I was 
working on my way home from northern Michigan, 
and had but a few towns left, when the doctor ordered 
me to take the first train home and see a first-class 
surgeon, adding that I had no time to lose if I 
valued my life. 

I hesitated about taking his advice, hating to 
give up a winning streak of business; besides, I 
knew that my rival salesman from our house was 
working might and main to nose me out of first place 
on the sales list. That was not all. In the next 
town I had a slim hold on an account that had started 
new the season before, and as I was out ahead of 
my competitors, I felt that my chances were good 
to sell the customer his opening Fall bill. The doc¬ 
tor finally convinced me that a dead salesman was of 
very little use; and not wishing to shuffle off this 
mortal coil at the very outset of my career, I went 
home and remained there for three weeks. 

I worried and chafed under my enforced idle¬ 
ness, realizing that before I could get back to that 
[ 64 ] 


The Order-Taker 


town and my new customer, the country would be 
full of millinery salesmen just as eager for that first 
bill as I was. 

As soon as convalescence set in, I wired him the 
exact date of my arrival, and not waiting for the 
bandages to come off, with my arm still in a sling, I 
set out to do the best I could in handling my trunks 
with the aid of porters and fellow-travellers. 

I arrived on schedule time. Jumping out of 
the bus, I did not stop to register, but . called to the 
porter to throw my trunks into the best sample-room 
he had, and was off like a shot for my customer’s 
store. 

Entering, I was filled with misgivings, half ex¬ 
pecting some salesman had been there and secured 
that much-coveted bill ahead of me. I greeted him 
with as much confidence as my shaken faith would 
permit. I expected it; almost the first thing he said 

was, “ A new man from-& Co. was here a few 

days ago.” But my hopes arose when he added, 
“ But I did n’t buy anything from him. His samples 
were not opened, and he came in sort o’ looking as if 
he expected to be turned down. I really did want 
to see his line, and might have given him an order, 
having heard his house well spoken of; but I guess 
my greeting was kind of cold. When I said I did n’t 
want anything anyway, and as long as his samples 
were not unpacked I would n’t have him go to the 
[ 65 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

trouble of opening tnem just for me, as it would n’t 
pay him, he waited around for a few minutes for 
further confirmation, and then explained that, owing 
to his big territory and being late, he was making 
towns pretty fast, and that if there was n’t much I 
wanted he’d see me next trip. But I don’t believe 
he will ever make another, do you ? ” 

I thought as he did about it, and it afterwards 
proved that we were both right. To make a long 
story short, my friend told me just about what he 
had said to the other fellow — that he did n’t want 
much, and he had made up his mind that he would 
wait until he went to market to do his buying. 

I reminded him of his desire to see- & Co.’s 

line, adding that as he was the only customer there, 
I was obliged to remain all the afternoon anyway, and 
would rather put in the time showing him the fine 
than lie around the hotel office doing nothing. 

It was not easy to budge him, but he finally said, 
“Well, my boy, if you have got grit enough to un¬ 
pack your stuff with a game arm, just to show me 
your line, I guess I can find time to run over to the 
sample-room a little later.” 

He came before I was through unpacking and 
stayed long enough to give me a bill for over one 
thousand dollars, and helped me to pack up when we 
were through. 

No, he did n’t buy from me out of sympathy for 



The Order-Taker 

my crippled condition. He was too good a merchant 
for that. 

On leaving, he said half to himself but loud 
enough for me to hear, “ Most curious fellow I ever 
saw.” Then aloud to me, “Likely I would have 
given him the bill I have given you if he had n’t been 
so confounded lazy.” 

While leaning back in the cushions, bumping 
along over the ties, did you ever say to yourself, 
“ If I am a salesman, I’m going to be one all over, 
through and through; but I won’t be a little, old, 
dried-up, knock-kneed, one-horse, shrivelled noth¬ 
ing, anywhere ” ? 

Have n’t you had a desire to rise above the sight 
of the kind of little fellow that you can pack in a 
sardine-box with nineteen others ? You have never 
known much about salesmanship if you have never 
felt in your soul that you wanted to be somebody — 
something — so big that you could fly up, and up, 
and up. If you have had this sensation, then you 
know something about what salesmanship is. 

Well, now, your house acts on the principle that 
each individual employee takes part in forming that 
house. If your employer has forty-five salesmen in 
his house, and fifteen of them are good salesmen, who 
love their house and their goods, and thirty others 
who are indifferent and careless, then you see what 
sort of house he has — two-thirds of his sales-force 
[ 67 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

away from loyal duty, and one-third hustling to in¬ 
crease the business. 

With forty-five salesmen on the force and only 
fifteen of them active, that house has all it can do to 
look after those thirty invalids, and has no time to go 
out for new business. 

Don’t you see ? 

To succeed , you must comply with all the condi¬ 
tions of your house. You might ask me: “What do 
you mean by conditions ? ” 

Railroads carry you, for instance, on certain 
conditions. I know of but two — one is that you get 
your ticket; the other that you get aboard. And just 
as soon as you comply with these conditions, then all 
the speed in that engine and all the comfort of that 
coach are yours to your destination. And when a 
salesman obeys the orders of his house and backs 
them up with intelligent service, the success of that 
house is his success also. And the salesman must 
learn this fact. 

It is not so much a question of who I am, but 
with what am I intrusted ? There is a great deal in 
that. 

I start to cross the Atlantic in a paper box, and 
as soon as my box gets wet it comes to pieces, and 
down it goes and I go with it. If I start in one of 
those grand ocean steamers, then all the strength in 
her hull, and all the power in her boilers, and all the 
[ 68 ] 


The Order-Taker 

skill of her officers are mine, and I ’ll never go down 
until she does. 

If I commit myself to my own weaknesses, I am 
no stronger than they; but if I commit myself to the 
best there is in my profession, and the best there is in 
my house, I’ll never go down until it goes down, with 
bright, energetic men pumping a constant stream of 
new life into it. Its course is upward, its sales in¬ 
creasing all the way along. 

Just a word to the salesman of the Order-taker 
class, in whom there is yet a possibility of “ warming 
up.” 

Business opportunities, like orders, are not 
waiting around to be served on silver platters. You 
must dig for them. 

£; The salesman stimulates desire and really sells 
something.” 

Arthur F. Sheldon, president of the Sheldon 
School of Business Science, and founder of the Science 
of Salesmanship, is without doubt the greatest author¬ 
ity on salesmanship of any time. To him can be 
attributed the statement: 

“There are ten thousand positions to-day in Chicago 
which are open to salesmen of high grade at salaries that are 
almost for the specialists to name and take for the asking. 

“Within it almost every man can find his place, pro¬ 
vided he has that one thing desired and desirable — infor¬ 
mation and knowledge of a highly specialized character, 
with a courage necessary to back it up.” 

[ 69 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER V 


THE FUSSY OR OVER-ANXIOUS SALESMAN 


Whosoever is in a hurry shoics that the 
thing he is about to do is too big jor him. 

Haste and hurry are very different things. 

HE Fussy salesman is generally visionary and a 



good talker, judging from the ease with which 
he dispenses the “ silvern ” article. Oh, no! a little 
thing like talk never troubles him. It oozes away 
like molasses from a stave-sprung barrel. Once 
fairly started, you might as well try to stop Niagara 
Falls as to shut him off. Control ? It is as foreign 
to him as to a kite without a tail. The speed with 
which he can talk a customer into a sale and out 
again causes the Twentieth Century Limited to look 
like a snow-plough doing duty on a narrow-gauge 
track. 

Talk is a mighty necessary thing in salesman¬ 
ship, but an equally important thing is to know when 
to stop talking. And the most essential thing of all 
is to know how to talk and what to talk about. 

The garrulous salesman is a blue-white optimist, 
seeing figures that exist only in the fluffy atmosphere 
in which he soars and soars. A few pounds of ballast 
accidentally taken aboard now and then allows him 
to navigate his airship close enough to reality in 


[ 70 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

sales-making to convince the sales manager that he is 
not entirely shut out from view above the clouds of 
lost opportunities. In his futile efforts to “land” 
something worth while, he drifts aimlessly about with 
his drag-ropes out, lightly raking the field of oppor¬ 
tunities over which he circles. If nothing goes wrong 
with the gas-bag, he feels that surely sooner or later 
he will hover long enough in the vicinity of a real prop¬ 
osition to permit his anchor to grapple and hold fast. 

It generally happens that while this aerial per¬ 
formance is going on and his customer’s patience is 
being tried with trifling things and meaningless 
sentences, Mr. Get Busy Salesman comes along and 
scoops up orders right and left under his very nose. 

The salesman who wears his customer out with 
visionary yarns about himself, and what he intends 
to do but really never does, will amount to nothing 
more than a putterer. He is a constant source of 
concern to his house, until, conscious at last that 
“ the jig is up,” he takes himself off to other pastures 
where the grass looks greener. He floats around 
from one house to another, until, to his dismay, the 
truth is at last forced upon him that the richest fields 
on earth are not for him to enjoy. Passing into 
oblivion is with him like the character in “ David 
Harum,” on the death of whom, his neighbors, ask¬ 
ing what was the complaint, were told, “No com¬ 
plaint at all; everybody is satisfied.” 

[ 71 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The Fussy salesman and his Over-anxious 
brother are in the same class in many respects. 
Each in his own way fails to accomplish results. 
There is hope that the latter will eventually -enter 
into an active sphere of usefulness on learning how 
to temper his anxiety with a reasonable amount of 
judgment bv aid of the rugged road Experience. 
The former may as well quit where he is and engage 
in some other line of business. 

Zeal is an admirable and necessary quality in 
successful salesmanship, the excess of which rarely 
develops into a permanent or fatal malady. True, 
pitfalls are encountered now and then, but there is 
always a chance for the man with this failing, if he is 
honestly desirous of getting on in the world; wdiile 
for the Fussy fellow there is but a forlorn hope. He 
never seems to know how to get right down to busi¬ 
ness in dead earnest. 

At times I like to indulge in base-ball parlance, 
adapting the expressions of those engaged in the fin¬ 
est of all outdoor sports, the National Game, to the 
qualities necessary in strictly up-to-the-minute busi¬ 
ness getting. Slogans of the diamond, such as “gin¬ 
ger up,” “get in the game,” “it only takes one to hit 
it,” and “take a long lead off,” are quite appropriate 
in salesmanship, and can be adopted with good effect. 

Just here I am forcibly reminded of a character 
known as Fritz, who lined up with my home town 
[ 73 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

base-ball team. It was in the year 1905. The team 
was making desperate efforts pennantward. The 
securing of that much-prized “ rag ” largely depended 
on the batting strength of the team. In every other 
respect they were thoroughly efficient candidates 
for the high honor that every man on the team was 
struggling with might and main to secure. 

Fritz, the catcher, was one of the best in the 
business, but when his batting qualities were in ques¬ 
tion he made an ordinary “ sand-lotter ” look like a 
National Leaguer. It was always Fritz’s turn to bat 
just when a hit was most needed to win the game. 
His intentions were of the best when he walked up to 
select his club. Most likely Fritz had never been 
told about the place that is paved with good inten¬ 
tions; but the ‘‘fans” had, and when they saw him 
walk up to the plate their stock went down several 
points. 

The moment Fritz faced the pitcher he was at¬ 
tacked with stage-fright, and danced up and down 
so that he could not get his eye on the ball to save his 
life. He just stood there like the Fussy salesman 
and fanned and fanned and fanned, until the umpire 
called him out on strikes. His long suit was “ hitting 
the air,” and he was never broken of that habit. 

A good story is related of two men, both expert 
swimmers, living in an American city. Their pow¬ 
ers of endurance was the subject of admiring com- 
[73] * 


Men Who Sell Things 

ment among their friends, who induced them to com¬ 
pete in a swimming-match. There was neither 
wager nor prize, but only a friendly contest to deter¬ 
mine which was the better swimmer, there being an 
understanding that the backer of the loser should 
pay for a dinner for the whole company of spectators. 

When the trial began for long-distance swim¬ 
ming, one of the contestants decided that he would 
force the pace from the outset. He shot ahead with 
vigorous, powerful strokes, and left his antagonist 
some distance behind. His friends cheered him 
exultantly from the shore, and shouted to him to 
keep up his good work. Excited by these outcries, 
he redoubled his exertions and increased his lead 
rapidly. 

Meanwhile, his competitor was swimming with 
steadiness, with a stroke which he could easily 
maintain for the whole distance. He was not discon¬ 
certed by the frantic appeals of his friends to quicken 
his stroke. He was confident that his competitor 
was exhausting himself by over-exertion at the out¬ 
set, and that the race would be won before it was 
more than half finished. 

The two swimmers kept on without changing 
their tactics until the half-distance stake was not far 
away. The leader had ceased to gain upon his 
rival, who was beginning to lessen the distance be¬ 
tween them. The first man was showing signs of 
[ 74 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

distress, while the other was swimming easily and 
was apparently as fresh as when he started. At the 
stake the leader threw up his hands and cried out to 
his rival to come to his aid. The second man, call¬ 
ing upon his reserve power, forged ahead with a few 
strong strokes, and came up in time to save the ex¬ 
hausted leader from drowning. 

“ Help me ashore! ” gasped the exhausted man. 
“ The race is yours. You need not finish the course.” 

The weaker man was kept afloat until a boat 
could be sent to rescue him. Then the stronger 
man turned the stake and completed the course, 
swimming with the same long, deliberate stroke 
with which he had set out. When he went ashore 
to receive the congratulations of his friends he was 
apparently none the worse for his prolonged exercise 
in the water. His success was a triumph of judg¬ 
ment rather than of expert skill or physical endur¬ 
ance, while the other exhausted himself by over¬ 
straining unnecessarily in the first half-mile. 

That swimming-match is a parable illustrative of 
many a failure in salesmanship and of many a suc¬ 
cessful career. Nothing is more dangerous than 
Fussiness or Over-anxiety in sales-making. It is the 
long, steady, deliberate stroke, with unused power 
in reserve behind it, that wins lasting success for the 
salesman, and makes him a candidate eventually for 
a junior partnership in his house. 

[75] 


Men Who Sell Things 

I once had a friend who worked his way up in 
the dry-goods business from floor-walker in a retail 
store to the position of assistant silk-buyer in a large 
wholesale house. The firm of which I was a mem¬ 
ber w r as situated in the same block as the one in which 
he was employed. He came into my office one day 
and said: “ I want your advice. We started together 
in the business race, but apparently you have been 
more fortunate than I, for while I am only a buyer’s 
assistant, you are close to the head of your own con¬ 
cern. What is your formula ? ” 

“No formula,” said I. “Every man is the 
arbiter of his own business destiny .” 

I told him that fortune had not favored me any 
more than it had favored him; that I did not believe 
in fortune anyway; and that the only way in which 
the success of any man could be achieved Tvas by 
“keeping everlastingly at it.” I knew he had 
changed about considerably, and when he had seen 
an opportunity had not taken advantage of it. 
Finally, I frankly told him that I thought in his case 
retarded advancement was due to his restless dispo¬ 
sition more than to any other one thing. He seemed 
disposed to argue the question, which I answered 
by saying: “In every large institution there are 
many opportunities for a man to make the most of 
himself in a business way.” 

“Opportunity,” said he, “that’s it. That is 
[ 76 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

what I came in to see you about. This is my fourth 
year with my present firm, and while they are 
* splendid people, I see no chance ahead of me for ad¬ 
vancement. At least, it is a case of waiting for dead 
men’s shoes. My salary of fifteen hundred dollars 
a year is inadequate for the support of a wife and 
three children. I have an offer from a large spe¬ 
cialty house in another city to go on the road at an 
increase of one thousand dollars, and it’s a sore 
temptation; yet I dislike to leave the old firm. On 
the other hand, the duty I owe my family is staring 
me in the face, and I really don’t know what to do. 
What do you think of it ? ” 

“ Well,” I replied, “ you also owe it to your firm 
and yourself to weigh this matter up very carefully. 
Personally, I believe in 4 sticking to the bush.’ Your 
opportunity will come in time. I would not like to 
advise you positively in a matter like this. A thou- 
sand-dollar raise is a big thing for any young man, 
but I would certainly consult with my firm, if I were 
you, before doing anything. Put the matter square¬ 
ly before them. Let them advise you. They will 
not take advantage of you, and will no doubt make it 
an object for you to remain.” 

He departed, promising to do that, but the next 
I heard from him was that he had accepted the offer 
made by the specialty house, and had left the old 
firm, where he was well regarded. 

[ 77 ] 


- Men Who Sell Things 

Two months later the head buyer of the silk 
department of that house dropped dead in the office 
of a New York hotel, and my friend’s old firm was 
obliged to go outside for some one to fill his place, a 
position that paid five thousand dollars a year salary, 
into which there was not the slightest doubt he would 
have stepped had he refused the other offer and re¬ 
mained where he was. 

Many an Over-anxious salesman fails to win 
ultimate success because he does not realize the 
opportunity that awaits him through conscientious, 
faithful labor and continued service in some one 
place. 

The calico-wrapper opportunity of the moment 
seems to obscure his vision from the sealskin-sacque 
opportunity of the future. He goes through life with¬ 
out any set purpose at all, with face turned away 
from the future and its rich possibilities, seemingly 
content to wander along, worrying in the present, 
anxiously occupied with a superficial survey of things 
to the right and to the left, but never ahead and be¬ 
yond. He is like the man who was so intent on 
watching what was passing in the street that he failed 
to notice the open coal-hole directly in his path, until 
suddenly he found to his astonishment that he was 
rapidly disappearing into inky blackness. 

I actually knew a business man once who was 
quite handy with carpenter tools and enjoyed his 


The Fussy or Over-Anocious Salesman 

annual outings at his summer home tinkering with 
all sorts of odd jobs requiring the use of saw and 
hammer. It occurred to him one day to build a boat¬ 
house over the river which skirted his country place. 
While sitting on a scaffold directly over the river, he 
was engaged in putting on the finishing touches, and 
found it necessary to saw off a cleat that hindered his 
work. It was late in the afternoon of the last day 
of his outing. Desirous of finishing his work before 
leaving for the city, he was rushing things. Grab¬ 
bing a saw, he began with vigor to despatch what he 
supposed was the projecting piece, and did not notice 
that he was actually sawing into the scaffolding on 
which he was seated instead of the inoffensive cleat. 
The truth finally flashed on him with a crunching 
warning, and the next moment he found himself 
floundering in the river, wildly waving his saw and 
calling for help. 

It does not pay to rush things. The Rome of 
salesmanship was not built in a day. 

It is said of the English General Buffer that 
“ he never went around anything that he could butt 
his head through.” And he continued that course 
in the Boer War, bringing all manner of disaster 
upon his command, which caused dread anxiety to 
the home authorities until his recall stopped his mad 
career. He was replaced by Lord Kitchener, the 
tactician, who was obliged to overcome Buffer’s 
[79] 


Men Who Sell Things 

blunders before he could hope to win a victory for 
England’s forces, which he did in the end by his 
superior generalship. 

The salesman who hopes to win real success, must 
change his negative qualities into positive ones , and 
then stick to some good reliable house where his chances 
for growth are assured. 

Returning from luncheon one afternoon, I was 
stopped just across the street from my place of busi¬ 
ness by a young man whom I had known as a boy, 
but had forgotten. Extending his hand, he said, 
“ Hello, Mr. Moody! Don’t you remember me ? ” 

Failing to recognize him at first, I replied: 
“ You’ve got the best of me this time, my friend. 
Your face seems familiar, but I can’t recall your 
name. ” 

“Why!” said he, “my name is B-. Don’t 

you remember that we worked together as boys with 
the old firm of S. L. & Co. ? You had the linen 
and white-goods stock, and I had the laces, just 
across the aisle.” 

“Yes,” I replied, “I do remember you now, 
but that’s a long time ago, and many changes have 
taken place on the street. The old firm has retired 
from business, but I presume you are still in the 
dry-goods line.” 

“No. I remained there but a short time after 
you left. I thought I was n’t suited to that line, 
[ 80 ] 



The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

and left to go into an insurance office. I soon 
found that insurance was not to my liking either, 
and then I tried the retail dry-goods business for 
a year or two. Realizing that there was no chance 
whatever in a retail store, I entered a business col¬ 
lege to study bookkeeping, but left the course un¬ 
finished on being told that if I intended making 
office work my life’s aim I should commence at the 
practical end of things by taking a position in some 
large office; but—” 

Not knowing where the narrative would end, 
but realizing that his story was a continued one, 
I interrupted him with — 

“ What are you doing now ? ” 

“ I’m studying electrical work in a big factory. 
No doubt there is a great field in that.” Then, as 
if by second nature, he asked: “What are you 
doing now ?” 

Turning, I pointed to the wholesale store 
across the street which bore my name, saying simply, 
“I am connected with that firm!” 

He seemed not to comprehend for a moment, 
but finally gasped, “You don’t mean to say that you 
are one of the firm ! ” 

“Yes,” I said, “I am.” 

“ Well! How on earth —” His face reddened 
and he did not finish what he was going to say. 
Instead he turned eagerly to me with — 

[ 81 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“Can’t you give me a place in your store? 
I don’t get much pay where I am. Besides, I think 
that if I could get in with some one who knew me and 
would take an interest in me I could do much better.” 
And then came the wretched admission that he was 
a married man and had a wife and two children. 

I knew that his case was hopeless. He had 
tried and condemned himself in the story he had 
related of his wanderings, but for old time’s sake 
I asked him to call at our office the next day and I 
would see what I could do for him. We needed an 
extra man in the shipping room, and gave him the 
place at a weekly salary of twelve dollars—just 
double the amount he was receiving at the parting 
of our ways twelve years before. A raise of fifty 
cents a week per year for twelve years. Think of it! 
Yet there are many such cases. 

I heard nothing from him for a few days, and 
then one night the door-bell rang at my residence, 
and our new assistant shipping clerk was shown in. 
I greeted him half-dressed, as I was going out for 
the evening. In some surprise I asked him what I 
could do for him. 

“Well,” he said, “you must excuse me for 
calling at your house, but as you have been kind to 
me I thought I ought to call and tell you that I am 
afraid I cannot do the work you have put me at. 
I don’t seem to understand it, and rather than make 
[ 82 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

mistakes which might embarrass you I have made 
up my mind to quit.” 

There was something delicate in that halting 
confession that touched me, but realizing that his 
was a case for vigorous action, if the man was to be 
saved for any good to himself or any one else, I 
determined to let my engagement wait. Taking a 
seat by his side, I gave him a heart-to-heart talk, 
in which matters were not minced regarding his 
past and checkered career. I pointed out that he 
really had a good opportunity at last to make some¬ 
thing of himself; that I would go out of my way to 
help him and advance him as rapidly as possible, 
but that it was up to him to do the rest. 

Our talk seemed to bolster him up somewhat, 
and he left promising to stick it out and do his best. 
Two months, however, of worrying along with him, 
in which many interviews took place, convinced us 
that he was a confirmed ne’er-do-well, and we had 
to let him out to continue his search for something 
that “ exactly ” fitted his capabilities. 

I never heard from him after that, but there is 
little room for doubt that the unfortunate fellow 
is still looking for a job, a sad example of neglected 
opportunities and a lack of stick-to-it-iveness. 

Opportunities don’t often repeat; mistakes do. 

The energetic , dead-in-earnest man creates confi¬ 
dence and success. 


[ 83 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Don’t let the self-satisfied and thoroughly con¬ 
tented persuade you that to-morrow’s triumph will 
compensate for to-day’s inaction. 

To-morrow is a 'poor time to catch to-day's 
opportunities. Nothing great is ever accomplished 
without trained enthusiasm, persistent energy, and 
a determination to win. 

The man who depends upon to-morrow’s 
efforts is ever a pall-bearer at the bier of lost hopes 
and dead ambitions. 

Results are the golden nuggets dug from to¬ 
day’s opportunities by earnest endeavor and patient, 
systematic toil. 

The faint-hearted man lacks the power to draw 
others to himself. He dissipates confidence, and 
fails utterly to secure prestige with those above 
him in authority. 

A dead fish can float with the tide, but it takes 
a live one to swim against it. 

In this progressive age a man’s usefulness, like 
that of the postage-stamp, consists in his ability to 
stick to a thing until he gets there. 

There is no use in mincing words. Let us look 
squarely at the facts as they exist, with a clear eye 
to bettering ourselves if possible. The fact is very 
clear and pertinent here, that we must meet our 
antagonists with their own weapons, hustle. 

There are many salesmen in the world who 
[ 84 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

persuade themselves into believing that to-morrow, 
next week, the week after, or next year will surely 
bring them the results they should have obtained 
to-day. 

Not content with leaning on the broken reed of 
their own procrastinating methods while others all 
around them are getting away from them a large 
share of business easily within their grasp, they try 
to argue away the chief point adhered to by their 
more progressive brethren in the race for sales,— 
namely, that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the 
bush.” 

Again I must ask the reader’s forgiveness in 
relating a personal experience which seems to fit 
in right here, and am willing to bear criticism on 
that point, if my little book prove a help to some in 
bringing their attention to the necessity of increased 
energy in the daily routine of their efforts at winning 
success. My sole purpose in relating this incident 
is to point out the reason why, in a certain class 
of salesmen, the negative qualities are outweighed 
by the positive. In any event, the reader will agree 
with me that our sins of omission, as well as those 
of commission, are traceable to our weaknesses, and 
also that a cure can be effected only through the 
development of strong qualities. 

Our firm had experienced considerable diffi¬ 
culty in drawing business from the West and North- 
[ 85 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

west through Chicago to the smaller Eastern market 
in which our house was located. At different times 
we had employed two or three salesmen in that 
section without success. On looking the situation 
over, we concluded that it was necessary for a 
member of the firm to go out there and do a little 
missionary work. Having travelled there at an 
earlier period, I volunteered to make the trip. 

The time to make an advance trip with Fall 
goods being at hand, I immediately mapped up a 
flyer for ten days, at the end of which I was to meet 
our buyers in New York. There was no time to 
lose and keep the Eastern engagement, so I laid out 
the trip to make close connections. 

The first town on the list was Oshkosh, Wiscon¬ 
sin. I arrived there at 4:30 on a hot June afternoon, 
and planned to get through and leave, if possible, 
on the 9:30 train the same night. 

The sample-rooms were all taken at the Ather¬ 
ton Hotel, and I had to open my trunks in the bil¬ 
liard room, which was used for that purpose when 
the place was crowded. I made no attempt at a 
regular display, but simply arranged the trays to 
be gotten at handily. 

Rushing out of a side entrance to make my 
first call, I ran into Oley, the Swedish porter, who 
stopped me long enough to say that two rival sales¬ 
men from Chicago had been there all day long 
[ 86 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

winding up their Summer business. Noticing my 
arrival and seeing me unpacking Fall goods, Oley 
explained that they had said to him, “He’ll have a 
fine time trying to sell Winter goods with the ther¬ 
mometer 93° in the shade. We have a small line 
of advance goods along with our Summer stuff, but 
haven’t tried to do any business. Why! You 
can’t even interest the trade in stuff for present use, 
to say nothing of goods they ’ll not need for three 
months to come. He might as well close up and 
move on. We’ve been around sounding the trade, 
and that’s the verdict.” 

“Give them my regards, Oley,” I said. “Per¬ 
haps they are right, but I’m going to make a stab at 
it, anyway. Maybe things are not so bad as they 
predict.” 

It was a walk of but two blocks to my first cus¬ 
tomer’s store. A few pleasant greetings over, I 
explained that I was a little pressed for time, and 
followed up the remark with an earnest appeal for 
an immediate engagement. 

Possibly the urgency of the whole thing im¬ 
pressed them; at any rate, they were over in my 
room at 5:30. Being quick buyers, they selected a 
bill amounting to three hundred and fifty dollars 
by 6:30. 

Snatching a mouthful of supper, I hurried back 
to the sample-room and selected a few samples of 
[87] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the best selling numbers. These I quickly packed 
into telescopes and boarded a car for the South Side, 
across the river. The merchant I wanted to see kept 
open nights, and I was fortunate in finding him in. 

Apologizing for troubling him at that late hour, 
I began unstrapping my cases, keeping up a running 
fire of selling-talk in the meanwhile. He protested 
that he did n’t want to buy so far in advance of the 
season. Perhaps if I had had as much time on my 
hands as my Chicago rivals I would have listened 
to him, but I kept right on, ignoring his protests as 
tactfully as possible, and finally caught his eye with 
an unusually attractive value in the velvet line. 

He called a clerk, and together they took a few 
samples and retired to the rear of the store to com¬ 
pare them. They talked them over so long that I 
began to get nervous. It was eight o’clock. But 
an hour and a half remained in which to return to 
the hotel, pack up, and catch the train. I was 
going to interrupt them, when they started toward 
me, talking earnestly and nodding their heads. 

Something in the manner of the dealer told me 
that the deal was off. Sure enough. Handing back 
my samples, he said: “You’ve got some good 
values; in fact, I don’t mind telling you they are a 
shade better than the samples sent me by the other 
houses. I will probably send you an order later on, 
but I don’t want to place it now.” 

[ 88 ] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

It took me less time to tell him than to write it 
that I wasn’t trying to sell him a cat in a bag; that 
his own judgment confirmed the quality of my goods, 
that I had confidence in him, and hoped he had con¬ 
fidence in me; that nothing could be gained by either 
of us by delay; and if he wanted my goods it would 
be necessary to book his order right there, as I would 
not guarantee the prices for forty-eight hours. 

That brought him around. When I said good¬ 
bye, the perspiration was running dow*n my back, 
but I had his order for four hundred and fifty dollars 
safely tucked away in my inside pocket. That made 
eight hundred dollars for a few hours’ work. It was 
reassuring, to say the least, when I thought of my two 
Job’s comforters back in the hotel wishing me all 
kinds of good luck. 

I made the train by the small margin of a hair; 
it was pulling in at the depot when I arrived. There 
was no time to check baggage. Quickly I ordered 
the drayman to back right up to the baggage car and 
dump my trunks in without being checked. The 
station agent was one of the sort that every travelling 
salesman carries around a club for. He started 
right in to veto proceedings, but he was a minute 
late. The conductor shouted, “All aboard!” I 
threw a half-dollar to the driver, telling him to hurry 
and drive off. The train pulled out, and I swung 
onto the rear platform. I stood there and waved 
[89] 


Men Who Sell Things 

my adieu to the enraged agent, but it was lost in the 
shuffle, for he was blessing the drayman in three 
languages. 

The conductor let me into the baggage car. 
Handing the baggageman a cigar, I remarked 
pleasantly: “I had to break the rules this time, 
brother. Will you please check these trunks to 
Green Bay ? ” 

That was rushing things too much for comfort, 
but I really believe that some salesmen lose business 
by having so much time on their hands that they 
don’t know what to do with it. Either they do not 
make the effort, or they talk their customers all 
around Robin Hood’s barn, until patience ceases to 
be a virtue; the merchants give the orders to the 
man who attends to his business and then gets away 
as soon as he can. 

Mind you, I haven’t said, “Do as I have done, 
and you will succeed.” Not at all; but rather, I 
have hinted that you should learn by mistakes how to 
avoid them. 

Suppose that with a house of one hundred sales¬ 
men we have fifteen that are full of faith in their 
house and their work, and eighty-five that stand out 
careless and indifferent. What can such a house do ? 
Only fifteen are able to fight, and there are eighty- 
five fussy, feeble men to look after! Don’t you see 
why that house can make no inroads on the trade of 
[90] 


The Fussy or Over-Anocious Salesman 

its competitors ? Don’t you see why it is that you 
haven’t headed the sales list in your establishment 
since you first picked up your gripsack ? 

My plan is to take a common-sense view of the 
facts. I like to deal with facts. You can’t get around 
a fact. Theories you can brush out of the way, but 
when you come to a fact you cannot dig under it, 
and you cannot jump over it; you have to meet it. 

A. F. Sheldon, founder of the Sheldon School of 
Scientific Salesmanship, asked the general manager 
of the largest institution of its kind in the world the 
question, “How do you measure the value of an 
employee ? ” 

The answer was, “ By the degree of supervision 
which he requires. The less supervision he needs , no 
matter what he is doing, the more valuable he becomes.” 

His next question was, “ What is the cause of the 
need of supervision ? ” 

Again the answer promptly came, “All super¬ 
vision is caused by two classes of sins: first, sins of 
omission; second, sins of commission. If the em¬ 
ployee in any capacity did not omit to do a thing which 
he should do, and in doing it committed no errors, 
then he would need no supervision, and his value 
would be at the highest .” 

The manner in which James Keeley, manag¬ 
ing editor of “The Chicago Tribune,” with the as¬ 
sistance of Harry Olsen, effected the capture of 
[91] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Paul O. Stenslund, the Chicago bank-wrecker, in 
Tangier, Morocco, in 1906, exemplifies the sort of 
enterprise that does things. 

It is an admirable lesson in pluck and energy 
that might well be followed by the class of salesmen 
who mean well enough, but only partially succeed 
through puttering around. Intelligent application 
to instant opportunity is necessary in performing 
such work. While the detectives were theorizing, 
“ The Tribune ” was working. The information 
received was indefinite, but investigation proved its 
probable accuracy, and led Messrs. Keeley and Olsen 
in tracking Stenslund to Tangier, and there arresting 
him. 

Speaking of the incident, the leading daily of 
another city said: 

“The arrest of Paul O. Stenslund is an indication of 
what the press can do, and also what the Chicago police 
cannot do. ‘The Chicago Tribune’ has found the man 
for whom twenty-two thousand depositors of the Milwau¬ 
kee Avenue State Bank were looking, and for whom the 
united police force of the world was supposed to be looking, 
while the sensational press was ‘ discovering ’ him in every 
nook and corner of the world in various disguises. 

The Tribune’ was the first to receive something in 
the nature of a clue to the whereabouts of the missing 
banker. But the clue was slight, and would have been 
worthless had it not been followed up with discretion, with 
patience, and a study of the subject of the pursuit and what 
a fleeing criminal would be likely to do under the circum¬ 
stances in which Stenslund had placed himself. A study 
[92] 


The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman 

of the conditions of the various countries in which he might 
seek refuge was also to be made. It required that knowl¬ 
edge of human nature that after a time becomes a second 
nature to the trained reporter. 

“ ‘The Tribune’ in its pursuit of the criminal did not 
avail itself of the services of a detective. The trained 
detectives were looking in an altogether different direction 
for the fleeing banker. It is not too much to say that had 
it not been for ‘The Chicago Tribune,’ in all probability the 
fraudulent banker would never have been discovered, and 
might have lived in ease on his ill-gotten gains — money of 
which he had robbed the poor who had confidence in him.” 

When Mr. Keeley finally cabled “ The Tribune ” 
that the actual arrest had taken place, the question 
of getting the prisoner safely back to the United 
States was attended with all manner of international 
complications. It was finally decided to send a 
stenographer from the office of the State’s Attorney 
to Washington to confer with the State Department 
in an effort to secure the aid of the United States 
Government for a proper and immediate transfer. 
His mission was attended with the usual amount of 
red tape “necessary” to such procedure, causing 
dangerous delay. 

At this interesting juncture the Washington cor¬ 
respondent of “The Tribune,” Mr. Raymond, com¬ 
prehending the necessity for vigorous action, entirely 
without regard to the traditions of international 
relations, took matters in his own hands and called 
upon President Roosevelt at his summer home at 
[93] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Oyster Bay. A brief interview was all that was 
necessary to show him that the President appreciated 
the urgency of the case, and that he was in hearty 
sympathy with the victims of the wrecked bank. - 

With characteristic independence, Mr. Roose¬ 
velt did not hesitate to overturn the traditions of 
musty international law, declaring that he would go 
to any extent necessary to secure the return and 
subsequent punishment of the bank-wrecker who had 
stolen millions, and who was denounced as “one of 
the most obnoxious types of criminals.” The inter¬ 
view finished, without a moment’s hesitation the 
President sent a telegram to the Hon. Robert Bacon, 
Acting Secretary of State at Washington, instructing 
him concerning the case, stating that it was his desire 
to appoint James Keeley and Harry Olsen as official 
representatives to take Stenslund in custody. 

Stenslund arrived in Chicago in due time in 
charge of his captors, and was duly prosecuted ac¬ 
cording to law. 

The Fussy newspaper man, like the Fussy Sales¬ 
man, makes a good stroke now and then, when for¬ 
tune favors him, but in most cases he fools away his 
best opportunities of doing something worth while. 
The sort of enterprise exhibited by Keeley and Ray¬ 
mond in behalf of their paper is the kind that will 
enable the salesman to win big scoops of business for 
his house. 

[9|jfc] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 


CHAPTER VI 


THE WHEELBARROW SALESMAN 

Spasmodic attempts to get business rarely 
succeed permanently. It is the delib¬ 
erate moving, cautiously, gradually, and 
intelligently, that makes the final success. 




HE Wheelbarrow salesman differs from the 



A Order-taker in that he has going spells once in 
a while, even though they come in fits and jerks, 
accompanied by many twists and turns. The wheel¬ 
barrow is a mighty useful article, but its inventor 
never intended that it should play any part in sales¬ 
manship. 

You know something about the peculiarities of 
the Wheelbarrow salesman if you are experienced in 
the style of acrobatic stunts necessary to the naviga¬ 
tion of that unwieldly contrivance from which he 
derives his cognomen in our family of business- 
getters. One thing I have noticed about the wheel¬ 
barrow is, that it is never used to carry a valuable 
load,— the chances of safe delivery are too slight. 
Its burden generally consists of bricks, mortar, dirt, 
or rubbish of some sort. It does very good work 
when there is nothing in the way to impede its pro¬ 
gress, but let it hit the smallest obstacle, and over it 
goes; or, perchance, if the man at the handle end 


[ 95 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

of the affair is well versed in its peculiar traits, he can 
save the load by an extraordinary exhibition of skill 
and adroitness, known only to the manipulator, and 
which closely resembles an Indian war-dance.. 

The salesman who hopes to get on in the world 
will find it a hard task on one wheel and two handles 
with some one constantly pushing him from behind. 
He must be a four-wheeler, with an improved 
up-to-date motor power of self-energy keeping him 
constantly on the move. 

The one-wheel machine goes along all right 
on a smooth track with a strong hand to steady it, 
and two props to keep its balance when not in 
motion; but it takes four wheels, all well greased 
and in good running order, on a vehicle stanchly 
built, to complete any kind of journey in safety in 
which there is a liability to encounter all manner 
of obstacles. 

I remember, when a youngster, seeing some 
performers at a circus do a balancing trick on one 
wheel. I went home and took a wheel off the buggy 
in the barn," ran a short piece of broom-handle 
through the hub, and mounted from the horse-block. 
The wheel made a half-revolution, which I com¬ 
pleted, stopping the mad whirl only when my head 
struck a convenient hitching-post. When the doc¬ 
tor had taken out the stitches, and I was able once 
more to sit at the table in place of standing, I said, 
[96] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 

“No more one-wheel business .for me,” and imme¬ 
diately turned my attention to fixing a contrivance 
on my four-wheeled red wagon that enabled me to 
propel it, riding at the same time, with no danger of 
a fall. 

A wheelbarrow is a dangerous thing at times to 
itself, its propeller, or anything that happens within 
short range. I once saw an Irishman laboriously 
pushing a heavily loaded barrow up a steep incline. 
His foot slipped, and to save himself he let the whole 
load go, which was precipitated on the head of a 
fellow-workman, killing him instantly. 

Webster defines the wheelbarrow as “A light 
vehicle, having two handles and one wheel.’ , Bar- 
row means “a portable carriage,” and portable 
means “capable of being carried easily.” There¬ 
fore, it must be seen at a glance that a Wheelbarrow 
salesman is the one who operates on one wheel, is 
light, has two handles, and is capable of being car¬ 
ried easily. 

The two handles might be labelled Push and 
Pull, it being necessary only for the sales manager 
to reverse his tactics that the wheelbarrow may be 
made to go either way. 

Under certain conditions it is easier to pull a 
wheelbarrow than it is to push it; besides the 
change about, it is less wearing in the long run. 

The trouble with this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 
[97] 


Men Who Sell Things 

type of salesman is that he bottles up his energy in 
an hour-glass of indolence and industry, in which 
the negative and positive qualities are about equally 
balanced but constantly at variance with each other. 
When the industry end of the glass is uppermost, 
splendid work is the result; but the supply gradually 
runs down into the indolence end until there is not 
a grain left. Then comes a period of slack work 
and consequent poor results. A powerful stimulus 
is required to reverse affairs, when once again indus¬ 
try conquers for a brief time, forcing its enemy, indo¬ 
lence, to the bottom. 

The utility of this class of salesman remains an 
unknown quantity so long as frequent stimulation 
is necessary to produce even a fair average of results. 

Nearly every large institution has its Wheel¬ 
barrow salesmen, men who do not seem to regard it 
as their duty to give their employers the first-fruits 
of their time and talent under all circumstances. 

There is really a fine point of honor involved in 
that. Perhaps they do not weigh the matter suffi¬ 
ciently to regard it from that standpoint. 

Some of them are splendid men in many re¬ 
spects, but lacking in that fine American quality, 
stick-to-it-iveness; they possess real ability, but are 
content with lapsing into commonplace ways now 
and then, instead of steadily working to the limit of 
their power, Occasional glimpses of their clever- 
[98] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 

ness are flashed forth in some particularly bright and 
successful piece of work. These are mighty good 
special-inducement fellows, though! I knew one 
once. His house offered a prize of one hundred 
dollars in gold, to be awarded to the salesman selling 
the largest amount of goods of a certain brand within 
a given length of time. Our Wheelbarrow friend 
got a hustle on him and won that prize in a walk, but 
his sales in the aggregate for the period showed him 
up in the middle of the list — good in spots, chang¬ 
ing according to conditions. 

It is not often that the salesman has an oppor¬ 
tunity to “about face” and brand his firm with being 
the wheelbarrow instead of himself, but such a thing 
actually occurred in the early experience of my 
friend Fuller. Nature had richly endowed him with 
qualifications for the work of promoting any enter¬ 
prise, as the results of his later experiences attest. 
But at the time the event related in this story took 
place, his selling ability was an unknown quarttity, 
he never having had the chance to put it to a real 
test. 

One day opportunity came knocking at his 
door, just as it does once or oftener in the life of every 
man, and he summoned courage enough to present 
himself at the desk of the manager of a willow-ware 
house and made application for a position. He was 
promptly engaged on his own representation of what 
[99] 


Men Who Sell Things 

he thought he could do, and was put to work selling 
a new stove polish. 

Securing a cloth, the manager opened a fresh 
box of polish and proceeded to give his new and raw 
recruit a demonstration of the merits of the article 
he was to sell, by shining an ordinary piece of paper, 
producing an elegant lustre, “with little effort and 
no dust or dirt.” 

Fuller had yet to learn that what he had just 
seen was a trick demonstration, and that a similar 
effect could easily be produced in the same way with 
almost any other brand. His supreme faith in the 
article was clinched with the manager’s statement 
that there was “ nothing in the world that could begin 
to compare with it,” and he started out with his little 
sample-case, a box of polish, a rag, and the assur¬ 
ance from the manager that he could find plenty of 
paper on the retailer’s counters with which to make 
like demonstrations. 

The first dealer encountered told him he had 
“ stove polish to burn.” But Fuller had it to sell, and 
with the effect of the manager’s demonstration still 
firing his brain, he was honestly convinced there was 
no stove polish on earth like his, and he shined papers 
galore. The fervor of his enthusiasm reflected an 
added lustre. His customer was forced to admit he 
had never seen anything like it, and closed by giving 
him a good order. 


[ 100 ] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 


In the same way he sold to the next dealer, and 
the next; in fact, he worked that street from one end 
to the other, making forty-seven straight sales in 
three days without a single break. He made every 
one of those forty-seven dealers believe what he be¬ 
lieved himself concerning that stove polish. 

Dealer Forty-eight was a stumbling-block, and 
came pretty near convincing Fuller that salesman¬ 
ship was a lost art, besides "winning a dollar from him 
on a wager that all stove polish looked and worked 
alike, backing up his argument with Fuller’s own 
paper demonstration, made with a polish taken from 
his own shelf. 

Stove polish from head to foot, leaving the 
grocer in much the same condition, Fuller rushed 
from the store crushed and defeated. He worked 
the balance of the day with but little success, mak¬ 
ing a sale to but one in every eight or ten calls. 
The few orders he did receive were given him as 
“complimentary,” and out of sympathy for his 
inexperience. His selling-talk, which had been 
effective principally in his demonstrations, totally 
deserted him with Number Forty-eight’s knock-out 
blow. 

One day Fuller awoke to the fact that he really 
had a good article. He had proved it by making 
forty-seven sales without falling down. He asked 
himself the question: “Why surrender the fine 
[ 101 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

success I have had at the start because of my expe¬ 
rience with Number Forty-eight ? ” 

Pulling himself together, he reasoned out that 
he had convinced forty-seven dealers that his article 
was good, and that but one had convinced him that 
it was no good. Having fought it all out with him¬ 
self, he determined to make a fresh start, buoyed up 
with the thought that there were any number of 
Forty-sevens in his territory. He figured out that 
he had really possessed some good talking-points, 
but lost them all on Number Forty-eight. 

Fortified with new faith in himself and the arti¬ 
cle he was selling, his first three or four calls showed 
him that his earlier methods were again working per¬ 
fectly. Being unusually adept, in a few months 
Fuller had mastered the main essentials of the stove- 
polish business, and along with it one of the most 
valuable lessons in salesmanship — stick-to-it-ive¬ 
ness. The outcome of his initial experience is best 
told in his own words: 

“I stuck at it for several months, and began to get 
acquainted with the trade, and learned that on the west 
side of the city there was a firm that made stove polish, but 
had practically no market for its goods, and less knowledge 
of how to push them. I determined to go over and see 
just what the conditions were. Examining the product, I 
pronounced it O. K., and made a statement to the pro¬ 
prietor that I could sell his goods. 

“Drawing up his chair, he began picturing to me the 
worst side of a business man’s career that I have ever heard 
[ 102 ] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 


of before or since. Everything in the world seemed to take 
on a beautiful indigo color. He sat there with his chin 
between his knees, addressing me in a manner that plainly 
indicated that he had completely lost his nerve. 

‘“Young man,’ said he, ‘the man is not yet born who 
can sell my polish. I have been plugging away at this 
business for eight or nine years, and my goods are on the 
dealers’ shelves in the worst possible condition; the cans 
are rusted out, the polish is hardened, and there is little 
left of them but a faded label. It is simply out of the 
question to attempt to regain my lost prestige in the face 
of all that.’ 

“ While he was outlining his side of a story which too 
plainly told of a neglected past, I could think of nothing 
but Number Forty-eight. When he had finished, I asked 
a few questions relative to what he would do, at the same 
time thinking of Numbers One, Two, and Three, all along 
the fine to Forty-seven. 

“The question of my engagement was finally settled 
on a liberal commission basis, and I got him to agree that 
in case I should find a few goods of his manufacture on 
a dealer’s shelves in bad condition he would send fresh 
goods for the bad stock. 

“My first day’s income was larger by far than any¬ 
thing I had made for any five or six days’ previous effort. 
I delivered my orders promptly the next morning, but my 
employer frankly informed me that he did not believe they 
were honestly taken. 

“You can imagine working for an employer of that 
temperament. I tried to convince him that my orders 
were honestly taken, and urged him to make an effort to 
deliver. All the eloquence I could muster failed to move 
him, until he had sent an insipid three-dollar-a-week clerk 
around to the dealers to see if the orders were O. K. 

“This would not have been so bad had the man who 
was sent to confirm my work been clever enough to give 

[ 103 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

some plausible excuse for asking such information. For¬ 
tune favored me, as I lost but two orders through this 
procedure. Within a week or ten days I had gained the 
manufacturer’s confidence, and he began to look upon 
the bright side of things. 

“ A few months later the sun was shining on both sides 
of the street for him. What little help he did have was 
putting in full time instead of working two or three days 
per week, and we all got along nicely. The manufacturer 
began to see his way clear; to think in the proper channels; 
to figure that if one man could sell his goods, somewhere on 
this earth there were other men who could do the same.” 

Fuller is now the Western sales manager for a 
large chemical plant, but is still on friendly terms 
with his Wheelbarrow friend, the stove-polish 
manufacturer, who has become wealthy, and owns 
and controls a large factory. His advertised brand 
is a household word the country over. He gives 
Fuller full credit for literally pushing him up the 
highway of success to a point that enabled him to 
proceed smoothly, and he can now dictate in the 
matter of opening up new territories when engaging 
additional salesmen. And he is particular to have 
only the best. 

An indispensable requisite to success is concen¬ 
tration, or devotion to one subject. When that sub¬ 
ject is faithful, well-rounded service to one’s house, 
the reward is certain. The man who would do one 
tiling well must not attempt a dozen things, how¬ 
ever attractive or inviting. The salesman who 
[ 104 ] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 


would get to the top of his profession must single 
out each day's work, and into that must pour the 
whole stream of his activities — all the energies of 
his hand, eye, tongue, heart, and brain. The sales¬ 
man of single and intense purpose, he who is not 
tempted with seductive side-line offers, who believes 
that his house will pay him just as much salary when 
the proper time comes as has been offered by a 
neighboring house to entice him away, is the sales¬ 
man who will accomplish lasting results and is 
everywhere in demand. 

A salesman may be able to show great bursts 
of speed, but if he runs first forward and then back¬ 
ward, to the right and to the left, with periodical 
fits of looping the loop in between, he will wind up 
some day by missing the gap altogether. 

The work of a salesman is to sell goods. No 
salesman has ever yet made his mark in the world 
of salesmanship who was not possessed with a 
master passion to see his sales climb higher and 
higher with each bulletin issued from the sales 
department. 

Allan Wilson says: “ Fight hardest when 

you're on your back. Many a down-and-outer 
would be an u'p-and-inner if such action had governed 
them at the crucial times of their careers .” 

Mr. Wilson tells a good story of the awakening 
of “ Scherer the failure.” 

[105] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Scherer was a failure. He was a miserable sort 
of a failure. Such a failure was he that his employer 
told him he was a failure, before all the other sales¬ 
men on the force. 

Scherer had conducted a small business of his 
own. Then he became the general agent for his 
county with the house of the man who later called 
him down. But it was a small post at best, and so 
he came into the general office, determined to make 
a big place for himself on the road. 

“Well,” said the manager of the sales depart¬ 
ment, “ we have n’t got anything against trying a 
new man.” 

“ But I’m not exactly a new man, Mr. Manager,” 
said he. “ I’ve handled the firm’s line for the last 
fourteen months in Wheatville County. I’ve sold 
goods in — ” 

“Well, it’s a little different on the road,” 
replied the sales manager, “ but we can find a 
territory for you, all right.” 

So they gave him a territory, and a fairly good 
one, and Scherer tugged his sample-cases to the 
depot and tried hard to be a real salesman. He 
was good where he was acquainted and where the 
house was known. When it came to getting new 
business he fell down completely. He made a 
dozen towns in a week, and failed to land one single 
order; then he got discouraged, and for a week 
[ 106 ] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 


tended only to fixed trade. And when he was 
turned down he took it to heart. 

He managed to hold his position, but continued 
to be a failure for four long years. Then, as was 
his custom, his employer held in his private office 
a reception for the salesmen of the firm. 

Every one was feeling good, and mutual ex¬ 
pressions of respect and appreciation passed freely 
about. Times were good, and Scherer’s employer 
was happy in his attitude toward his men. He told 
them that never had he been so well served by any 
set of salesmen in his entire career, that never had 
the firm done so much business, and that never were 
the promises of the future so bright and rosy. Not 
a salesman on the staff but had done himself proud, 
he said. 

Then his eye fell on Scherer the failure, over 
in the corner. The iron in his employer’s soul was 
touched. “That is,” he said, “with one exception. 
Mr. Scherer, who is our weakest salesman, has 
failed, as customary, to do justice to the firm and to 
the territory which he travels. However, the other 
men have done so well that the handicap of one 
weak man scarcely has been felt.” 

Scherer never knew how he left the office that 
day. He went home and sat with his hands in his 
lap, forcing himself to realize just what the head had 
said to him. Then he became terribly ashamed. 

[107] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Also he was angry, as men grow angry in silence and 
alone when they have unpleasant thoughts, and he 
swore considerably. He did n’t sleep that night. He 
lay awake and cursed himself and his employer 
with great impartiality. 

He was in the city for a week’s rest, but the 
next morning found him packing his trunks and 
cases for the road. He was on the road all the next 
day, and at nightfall he walked into the office of 
a man who had twice before refused to see him. The 
man each year bought goods of the kind he was 
selling to the extent of $50,000. This time Scherer 
walked past the office boy and presented his card 
himself. 

“ Mr. Blank, I've come to sell you some goods,” 
said Scherer. “You can't afford to stop me from 
doing it. Will you give me some time now, or shall 
I call later?” 

The man tore the card into bits. “Damn it!” 
he roared, “where are those office boys?” 

“Outside,” replied Scherer calmly. “There 
was only one. I stuffed him under a bench when 
he tried to stop me. And here’s another card. 
Now do you think I’ve got a proposition that can 
interest you ? ” 

The man looked carefully at the new r card and 
laid it down. 

“ What’s your proposition, Mr. Scherer ? ” 
[108] 


The Wheelbarrow Salesman 

“ Whew! What in the world’s happened to 
Scherer ?” said the sales manager two weeks later. 
“ He must have gone crazy. Why — why, he’s 
actually got the record for the sales of last week.” 

He carried his discovery to the head, and the old 
man smiled grimly. “Scherer? Oh, yes. Well, 
you never can tell what a horse can do until you’ve 
tried your hardest whip on him.” 

The old saying, “ Stick to your business , and 
your business will stick to you” is the only safe rule 
for the man who believes that salesmanship is a hop, 
skip, and jump game, requiring little practice and 
less brains. We boys used to amuse ourselves with 
that pastime during recess at school. The hop 
and the skip looked easy enough on the face of it, 
and the most awkward of us got along so far without 
losing our equilibrium or our bets. But the real 
test came in making the jump. No one could foretell 
the result of the jump. Balanced on one foot, the 
spring was made, which ended for most of us amid 
hoots of derision from our schoolmates. It hurt 
our feelings and dampened our ardor more than did 
the header we had taken. It was an exhausting 
practice, that consumed our energy and our enthu¬ 
siasm; and how is success possible without en¬ 
thusiasm ? 

In urging the importance of sticking to the 
business of our profession, I do not mean that any 
[109] 


Men Who Sell Things 

man should be a mere salesman, lest he become a 
one-wheeler on the barrow plan. 

The profession of salesmanship has its peculiar 
tendencies, which more or less dwarf those that 
devote themselves to it on a narrow-gauge scale, 
hampering and preventing them from attaining a 
well-rounded, healthful, and whole-souled sphere of 
usefulness. Is not the mechanic in many cases but 
an animated machine ? Does not the salesman too 
often get a one-wheeled idea of the road, forgetting 
that the coach in which he travels is built on eight ? 
And do not his indolence, lack of tact, and lack of 
practical methods give rise to the idea that salesmen 
are born and not made? 

Selling-success cannot be accomplished with 
one wheel, two handles, and a prop. Every sales¬ 
man ought to be something more than a spoke, a 
cog, or a pulley in our great commercial machine. 

Think it over, Brother Wheelbarrow, and 
determine that it is worth while to be a salesman , 
cultivating and developing, so far as you can, all your 
energies on a four-wheeled plan, and then expend 
your chief labors on getting there by the sole aid 
of your own motive power — educated enthusiasm. 


[ 110 ] 


The Know-It-All Salesman 


CHAPTER VII 


THE KNOW-IT-ALL SALESMAN 



Many a man who takes himself very seri¬ 
ously is regarded as a huge joke by others. 

Many a fool is vain and self-deceptive; many 
a man of great power is modest to the last degree. 

I T does not follow that because air is life it has 
any application to salesmanship; but perhaps 
that is the reason why some salesmen blow so 
hard. 

A noted and witty preacher once said: “The 
general pulpit style of America is about like this: 
Here I am, the Rev. Jeremiah Jones, D-o-c-t-o-r of 
D-i-v-i-n-i-t-y, saved by the grace of God, with a 
message to deliver. If you will repent and believe 
what I believe, you will be saved; and if you don’t, 
you will be damned; and I don’t care much if you 
are.” 

Self-assertiveness is an invaluable quality in 
salesmanship when properly harnessed, but it can 
be overworked. 

The Know-it-all Salesman claims a large share 
of the lime-light wherever possible. He seeks to 
impress every one with whom he domes in contact 

[ 111 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

with an idea of his astonishing zeal, and by a melo¬ 
dramatic display of activity. 

If a man is going to be efficient and successful , 
he must think more about his work than about-him¬ 
self. The salesman who wants to get to the top by 
intelligent devotion to work has no time for self¬ 
worship. 

Salesmanship is like a great river coursing its 
way onward through the innumerable channels and 
branches of the world’s activities, the shores of 
which are strewn with wrecks and failures, who 
held their own personalities as paramount to their 
work. If the quality of a salesman’s work will 
pass muster with the head of his house, his per¬ 
sonality will shine through it unushered by any 
effort on his part. 

Salesmen that talk as though they were well 
pleased with themselves do not find many in their 
neighborhood who are well pleased with them. 
Whenever a salesman gets more self-consciousness 
than he has sense, he’s going to talk foolishness 
most of the time. Selling-talk and foolishness do 
not mix well, the one must suffer at the expense of 
the other. 

You associate with salesmanship thought, 
wisdom, and a reasonable amount of self-restraint, 
don’t you ? Now, some salesmen say that they 
don’t have to study, and they don’t need the advice 
[ 112 ] 


The Know-It-All Salesman 


of their sales manager. They can paddle their 
own canoes. 

The president of a great house travelling many 
men appropriated a large sum to be invested in the 
education of his corps of salesmen through the 
organization and equipment of a class in scientific 
salesmanship. 

A few weeks after the study had been installed, 
he went to one of his salesmen and inquired how he 
was getting along with the work. The reply was: 
“The author of that course don’t know anything 
about our line. He can’t learn me nothing.” 

And sure enough he could not. 

When selling goods, that salesman just opened 
his mouth and let come out of it what would, and it 
was generally filled with air. That is all such a 
mouth can be filled with. There is many an old 
air-gun salesman shooting around over his territory. 
You can’t bring down big game with an air-gun. 

Three things are necessary to enable a salesman 
to put up a good selling-talk — knowledge , judg¬ 
ment , and enthusiasm. Buyers associate those qual¬ 
ities with every good selling-talk they hear. 

No one will ever do anything for you that you 
can do for yourself. The sales manager in your 
house has too much to do to go running around post¬ 
ing lazy salesmen that have no disposition to learn 
anything new. 


[ 113 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

You show me a salesman that feels he is all- 
sufficient in his own knowledge, one who doesn't 
have to keep posted on the latest and best of every¬ 
thing that will aid him in holding and gaining prestige 
with his trade and his house, and I will show you an 
Air-gun. I write with safety, for of course there are 
no Air-guns around your house. I refer to those in 
the house of your neighbor down in the next block. 

The next thing to an Air-gun is an old Powder- 
gun — one with nothing in it but powder. No trade 
is ever secured with that. The Powder-gun Sales¬ 
man shoots at his trade without any shot. His 
customers enjoy it as much as he does — none of 
them ever get bagged. But whenever a salesman 
puts a shell filled with shot into the magazine of his 
selling-talk and lays the barrel on solid judgment, 
and takes careful aim, training the sight on the sale 
he is bent on securing, and fires, he is sure to hit the 
bull’s-eye. 

After his shot tells, he can stop and apologize: 
“I didn’t mean to hit you there. I aimed here.” 
That is a salesman who aims where he hits, and hits 
where he aims. 

The greatest power any house ever had is a game 
salesman — never afraid of competition. And the 
greatest drawback is the Shotless Salesman, who 
aims at nothing in particular, and misses everything. 
He is in the same category with his fussy friend Who 
[114] 


The Know-It-All Salesman 


is afraid of hurting somebody’s feelings if he takes 
careful aim. 

Don’t let any one say of you that you talk too 
much of yourself and your affairs. 

A reasonable degree of self-assurance is a good 
thing; the best of salesmen practise and live self- 
confidence and self-assertiveness to a certain meas¬ 
ure; but the overworking of these qualities is the 
cause of the failure of many a bright salesman. You 
are obliged to have something more. 

Salesmanship does not consist of what you pro¬ 
fess, but it consists of what you are, what you do, and 
how well you do it. When the doing follows the 
being, the result swells your sales, increases your 
chances for ultimate success. 

There is no objection to a man professing sales¬ 
manship. There is no quarrel with a salesman as 
long as he lives on a level with what he professes; 
but when he gets down below that, the sales manager 
should go for him. When the salesman mixes too 
much of himself with what he is trying to sell, he 
is not living on a level with his profession. Self- 
sufficiency does not secure efficiency. 

The real worker must forget self; business is the 
main thing. 

It is hard for the Know-it-all Salesman to realize 
that nobody is always right. 

The man who either will not or cannot efface 
[115] 


Men Who Sell Things 

himself enough in performing his duties will find it 
exceedingly difficult to get along. He cannot hope 
to win the approval of those above him in authority, 
or to make lasting friends of his customers. .He is 
like a man toiling up an icy glacier without the aid 
of an alpenstock. The most arduous effort too often 
means a sudden plunge into the yawning abyss. 


[ 116 ] 


The Quick-Tempered Salesman 


CHAPTER VIII 

THE QUICK-TEMPERED SALESMAN 

If a man opens his door, his dog runs 
out in the street before he knows it. 

Your tongue is a sort of revolving 
fan to a fire; and the first time you 
let your tongue go, you are gone. 

I T is astonishing how many things will come up to 
the salesman, and come when he least expects 
them, upon his tongue. 

Some one has told us that we get our idea of the 
word “temper” from the blacksmith's shop, where 
the blacksmith is shaping an axe, for instance, and 
upsetting the blade of it. He heats the blade and 
pushes it down into the water, and, taking it out, 
he watches it take its color; and again he pushes it 
into the water and takes it out and watches it take its 
color; and then directly he passes it to the hand of 
the farmer, and says: “ I think that is tempered, but 
I don’t know. If you will grind it and take it out to 
that knotty log and throw it in a time or two, I shall 
be able to tell you whether it is tempered or not.” 

And the farmer takes up the axe and goes out to 
the log and strikes it a time or two, and the axe is 
full of notches. He takes it back to the blacksmith, 
and says: “You missed it this time. Look here! 
[117] 


Men Who Sell Things 

It is notched all over with gaps.” And the black¬ 
smith takes it and puts it in the fire again and tests 
it; and when the owner next takes it out to the 
log, its edge is all right, and he says: “ This- edge 
is perfect.” That is where we get our idea of 
temper. 

Many a time the salesman has his disposition 
upset and tempered, and then he goes out and says: 
“ Well, now, I will never get that way any more. I 
have got the edge all right this time. I have got it 
tempered up in every respect.” But the first old 
knotty customer he gets to, away it goes, and the 
notches are made in it, and the edge is destroyed, 
and he says: “ Dear me! It’s of no use for me to 
try at all. I did worse this time than I ever did 
before.” 

Have n’t you ever felt that ? 

A good temper will stand anything without the 
breaking out of a gap or the turning of an edge. 

There is a great difference between the good- 
natured salesman and the good-tempered salesman. 

We hear people say, “ Oh, that person has less 
temper than anybody I ever saw.” Well, he is of 
less account than anybody you ever saw, if you mean 
by that that he is simply good-natured. 

Given a man with immense temper, and when 
that temper is of the right sort, then it is you’ve got 
the finest character this world ever saw. 

[ 118 ] 


The Quick-Tempered Salesman 

We can have good tempers only with vigilant, 
watchful care over them. Did you ever manage 
your temper by clinching your teeth together and not 
letting your tongue run a bit ? Your tongue is a sort 
of revolving fan to a fire, and the first time you let 
your tongue go, you are gone. Did you ever try to 
curb your tongue once ? If you ’ll do it, you ’ll be 
astonished. 

If you are a Quick-tempered Salesman, begin 
now by saying, “I will watch my temper; I will 
watch my tongue; I will watch my disposition; I 
will watch within; I will watch without; I will be 
vigilant; I won’t be surprised by anything. I am 
going to see my enemy approach; I am going to 
watch him as he comes, and I am going to meet him 
as he comes.” 

A soldier in the last war said: “ One of the 
hardest things I had to do was to lie still under 
fire.” 

Humanity wants to fight back, and kick back. 
But the salesman never fought back, or kicked back, 
or talked back in his life that he was not sorry that he 
did it. The best thing is to stand and hold out and 
let your enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon 
do that if you will hold right still. 

Speaking on the subject of self-control, a noted 
reformer once said: “ If a man called me a liar, I 
would not get mad and fight him. I would say to 
[ 119 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

him, ‘If I’m a liar I ought to be ashamed of my¬ 
self; and if I’m not a liar you are a liar.’ ” 

It is a mighty good plan to combat insult and 
injury with wit or a smile. These quickly disarm 
our adversary. 

The value to the salesman of self-control in 
meeting the selfishness or insults of a customer, or of 
managers, is demonstrated over and over again in the 
life of every man on the road. Many instances 
occur in the career of every salesman where right¬ 
eous indignation seems justifiable, but if used at all 
as an antidote, it should be in homoeopathic doses 
only. 

While travelling on the road, long before em¬ 
barking in business for myself, I once lost my temper 
under very trying circumstances in dealing with the 
buyer of a large firm. 

Years afterwards I secured the services of a 
traveller who was intimately acquainted with that 
buyer. The first time our new man called on him 
he was surprised at the reception he received upon 
presenting the firm’s card. The man with whom I 
had quarrelled opened up on our new representative 
with, “We have been good friends, and you have 
always given me a square deal. It would be a real 
pleasure to continue my business relations with 
you personally, but you can go back and tell your 
employer that I will see him in Hades before he 
[ 120 ] 


The Quick-Tempered Salesman 

gets another dollar’s worth of business from my 
firm.” 

During the years that followed, our firm was 
deprived of thousands of dollars’ worth of business 
from him because I had lost my self-control just 
once. 

Get the habit of self-control , and never part with 
it. When tempted by weakness, keep away as far 
as possible from the danger-line. There is always 
a fascination in seeing how near we can go to the 
edge of a precipice without toppling over. 

A wealthy man, owning a fine country home 
far up on a mountain-side, desired the services of a 
coachman. The road leading to his place was very 
dangerous. It skirted the edge of great caverns and 
made many sharp turns. Several applicants sought 
the position; the same question was asked each, 
“ How near can you drive to the edge of the preci¬ 
pice without going over ? ” 

The first replied, “ I think I could go within 
two inches.” 

The wealthy man said, “ You will not do.” 

The second thought he could go within an inch, 
and was promptly refused. 

The third man was an Irishman. His reply 
was, “Begorra, I’d kape as far away as I could.” 

Promptly came the answer, “ You ’re the man 
I’m looking for. The place is yours.” 

[ 121 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Thomas De Witt Talmage, in one of his most 
popular lectures, “Big Blunders,” speaking of in¬ 
dulgence in bad temper, said: 

“ Good humor wall sell the most goods, plead the best 
argument, effect the best cure. The poorest business firm 
in town is Growl, Spitfire & Brothers. 

“ They blow their clerks. They insult their custom¬ 
ers. They quarrel with the draymen. They write impu¬ 
dent duns. They kick the beggars. The children shy off 
as they pass the street, and the dogs with wild yelps clear 
the path as they come. Acrid, waspish, fretful, explosive, 
saturnine, suddenly the money market will be astounded 
with the defalcation of Growl, Spitfire & Brothers. 

“ Merryman & Warmgrasp were poor boys when they 
came from the country. They brought all their posses¬ 
sions in one little pack slung over their shoulders. Two 
socks, two collars, one jack-knife, a paper of pins, and a 
hunk of gingerbread which their mother gave them when 
she kissed them good-bye and told them to be good boys 
and mind the boss. 

“They smiled and laughed and bowed, and worked 
themselves up higher and higher in the estimation of their 
employers. They soon had a store on the corner. They 
were obliging men, and people from the country left their 
carpet-bags in that store when they came to town. 

“ Henceforth when the farmers wanted hardware or 
clothing or books, they went to buy it at the place where 
their carpet-bags had been treated so kindly. The firm 
had a way of holding up a yard of cloth and ‘ shining on * 
it so that plain cassimere would look almost as well as 
broadcloth; and an earthen pitcher would glisten like 
porcelain. 

“ Not by the force of capital, but by having money- 
drawer and counting desk and counter and shelves all full 
of good temper, they rose in society, until to-day Merryman 
[ 122 ] 


The Quick-Tempered Salesman 

& Warmgrasp have one of the largest stores, and the most 
elegant show windows, and the finest carriages, and the 
prettiest wives in all the town of Shuttleford.” 

Many a salesman has gone down under his tem¬ 
per. They usually begin by pluming themselves 
with the idea that their firm does not expect its men 
to make doormats of themselves for crusty custom¬ 
ers to wipe their feet on. That is a greatly over¬ 
worked idea with those who have a short hold on 
their tempers. They end with kicking themselves 
out of that very firm and the good graces of their 
trade, because they are continually going about with 
chips on their shoulders, looking for trouble. 

People who have never seen the tide come in at 
the ocean beach do not understand it. 

Like the development of a bad temper, the 
waves creep slowly up at first and then recede. 
“The tide is going out,” says one; “the sea is going 
down.” Ere it is gone another wave comes. This 
time it reaches a higher point; but it recedes again, 
and he says, “ Surely the tide is going out, and the 
sea is going down.” Again a wave rolls in, this 
time it comes higher; and presently the tide is full. 

So with the advance of an ungovemed temper 
— its baneful influence engulfs and destroys every 
chance the salesman ever had to become a power in 
his profession. 

Some one has said, “A melancholy musician 
[ 123 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

may compose a Dead March, and make harp weep 
and organ wail; but he will not master a Battle 
March, or with that grand instrument, the organ, 
storm the castles of the soul as with flying artillery 
of light and love and joy, until the organ pipes seem 
filled with a thousand hosannas.” 

When a salesman boils over quickly, you soon 
find out what is in him. 

Show courtesy to others, not because they are 
gentlemen, but because you are one. 


[ 124 ] 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 


CHAPTER IX 

THE SKY-ROCKET SALESMAN 

A salesman who seeks to establish him¬ 
self on a good footing by unfair means 
is soon spotted by his trade and by 
his fellow-salesmen. He loses the con¬ 
fidence of the first and the friendship 
of the latter. He is not a salesman , 
but a bribe-giver , or something worse. 

N EARLY every phase of salesmanship has been 
made an exhaustive subject of discussion at 
some time or other, but all too little has been said or 
written concerning the Wear-well salesman. Just 
here, however, while we are attempting a descrip¬ 
tion of the negative types, the Sky-rocket looms up 
as the opposite of the Wear-well class, those who 
serve as beacon-lights along the shore of salesman¬ 
ship. 

The mariner attempting to guide his ship safely 
into harbor on a dark and stormy night would be¬ 
come hopelessly lost in his bearings with nothing but 
sky-rockets to beckon him into haven. The steady 
glare of the trusty light on the rocky point is his one 
hope. 

Sky-rockets are used at sea as signals of distress 
to attract the attention of passing ships or of the 
life-saving station, to their helpless condition. 

[ 125 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The Sky-rocket salesman is ever a signal of dis¬ 
tress, causing much concern to the unfortunate house 
with which he is connected. A flash in the pan; a 
streak of light; an outburst of sparks; a thin line of 
smoke marking its meteoric course; a smell as of 
something burning — and all is over but the drop 
of the stick; and who can predict where that will 
alight ? 

With a crash and a thud his presence is an¬ 
nounced among the list of “ also rans,” whose break¬ 
down on the course prevented his finishing the race. 
Happily this type of salesman is gradually disappear¬ 
ing, thanks to the exacting business methods of the 
present strenuous day. 

But the occasional flash of the Sky-rocket on 
the horizon of professional salesmanship is sufficient 
cause for reflection to the sales manager, suggesting 
the necessity of pointing out the true way to ultimate 
success, which is possible only by sure-footed meth¬ 
ods, infinite patience, undaunted courage, and un¬ 
blemished integrity. 

Even when a salesman understands his line 
thoroughly and knows how trade conditions stand, 
much depends on the personal qualities he brings 
into play when interviewing people. 

Selling goods of even the highest class is arduous 
work. The salesman must see that he brings to his 
task the necessary strength of character. In no 
[ 126 ] 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

other line of business is a man so quickly reduced to 
his right level as in salesmanship. He cannot live 
for long on a false plane. 

In brief, salesmanship is a profession that finds 
room for all kinds of minds. But a man ought not 
to rate himself too highly at first. When he suc¬ 
ceeds in a small way, he assuredly will be asked to 
fill more important positions. 

It is rarely the case that the Sky-rocket sales¬ 
man is designedly unprofessional in his methods. 
He is by nature oftener imprudent, or unacquainted 
with the characteristics of the finished salesman, 
which are produced only in the school of human en¬ 
deavor taught by Master Results. 

Again he may be the victim of bad training, the 
result of unrestricted latitude in business-getting. 

It is a regrettable fact that some employers are 
not very scrupulous and exacting as to the ways and 
means employed by their salesmen, so long as orders 
are forthcoming. 

They wink at the means, satisfying their con¬ 
sciences with the fallacious saying that, fair or foul, 
it is justified by the end. 

Houses that tolerate such methods, though they 
do not actually encourage them, generally find them¬ 
selves victimized by their own men. Sooner or 
later either the sheriff or the receiver takes charge, 
leaving the unfortunate salesman to drift into other 
[ 127 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

pursuits, or perchance find his way into the sales 
force of a competitive institution, where for the first 
time in his career he is given a real introduction to 
legitimate, high-grade selling and merchandising 
methods. 

Here the work of the resourceful sales manager 
is put to a true test. If the subject over which he 
labors possesses in any degree the rudiments neces¬ 
sary to the making of a successful salesman, the 
make-over process of true selling education, based 
on knowledge, character, and honesty, begins. 

The reward for time thus expended affords a 
peculiar sense of gratification to the manager and his 
house; and to the salesman unbounded happiness 
and true-blue loyalty on being won over to a sphere 
of genuine usefulness to himself and others. 

The disaster that may be expected to result 
from bad training in salesmen is exemplified in the 
experience of a competitor of our firm. The pro¬ 
prietor of that house was a pioneer in the business, 
and made considerable money in his day. Being 
an old man, however, he could not adjust himself to 
modern methods. Competition became too strong 
for him, and he was finally forced into bankruptcy. 
The business was taken over by his son, who secured 
enough money from his wife’s people to settle his 
father’s indebtedness at about twenty-five cents on 
the dollar. The younger man possessed some of his 
[ 128 ] 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

father’s peculiarities, which bordered on the lack of 
principle. His remaining assets were in the nature 
of a college education that he did not seem to know 
what to do with, and a skimmed-milk knowledge of 
the business. 

In spite of these handicaps, he surrounded him¬ 
self with a fairly capable staff of salesmen, and he 
really had a working chance to make a success of his 
undertaking. He started in to manage his business 
from an office chair, and that kind of management 
soon runs its course. Like the foolish man who turns 
on the light to look for a burglar, he stood out boldly 
in the glare of his unpractical methods, while his sales¬ 
men worked out his ruin,doing about as they pleased, 
secure in the shadow of their graft. Those of the 
men who had been upright soon lapsed into careless 
indifference. Others robbed their employer under 
his very nose, with little fear of prosecution, because 
he was in such bad financial straits that he did not 
dare to make a move. In three years ruin and dis¬ 
grace fell upon that house, and it was again forced 
out of business, this time for good. 

By no means are all Sky-rocket salesmen worth 
the effort to save them, but this can be determined 
only by giving each a fair chance. 

The trying-out process will usually demonstrate 
that they possess marked salesmanship ability, which 
is susceptible of high culture under the right tutorage. 

[ 129 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

To harness their enthusiasm with judgment, 
create in them singleness of purpose, impregnate 
their selling-talk with logical, honest arguments, 
and endow them with wear-well qualities requires 
patience; but all this is possible of accomplishment 
under a firm hand. 

Is it worth while? 

Certainly. The best salesmen any house ever 
employed are secured in this way; but there must be 
a good foundation to build on. The trouble is, 
many employers will not be bothered with this 
class. As soon as they discover their weaknesses, 
out the weaklings go. And what comes then ? 
Order-takers, perhaps, to fill their places. 

Give me enthusiasm — even though perverted — 
rather than indolence. 

Now, let us see how it works out. 

A Sky-rocket salesman once secured a position 
with my house on the recommendation of one of our 
old travellers who knew him by reputation as being 
a good man. And right here let me emphasize the 
fact that there is a vast difference between reputa¬ 
tion and ability or character. “ Character is what a 
man is; reputation is what he seemeth to be.” 

We fixed up a territory for our new man and 
started him out with our hopes keyed up to the last 
peg. 

Our confidence was shaken by a letter received 
[ 130 ] 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

before he had been out a week. He advised us, on 
making a certain town, that the only merchant to 
whom we would pass credit was trading at a neigh¬ 
boring house, concluding his statement with a 
request to send the merchant a letter under plain 
envelope, addressed in care of our competitor, in¬ 
viting him to call and inspect our line while in 
the city. 

We replied that we considered his request a 
breach of business ethics, and that our policy did 
not countenance such procedure, adding a few 
side-lights on legitimate, clean-cut, above-board sell¬ 
ing methods. 

His first trip ended with a gratifying showing in 
sales as indicated on the surface, and our hopes in 
him seemed in a fair way to be realized. 

A little later, however, goods were returned 
from every section of his territory, with the state¬ 
ments, “Not ordered,” or “Ordered on approval; if 
not satisfactory to be returned.” These claims for 
credit were accompanied by claims for express 
charges, extra discounts, and all manner of things 
not quite consistent with fixed deals. Mr. Sky¬ 
rocket had promised to do thus and so, his customers 
wrote, but investigation of the order sheets sent in 
failed in every instance to discover any record of 
these special arrangements. We were continually 
being placed in the embarrassing position of pitting 
[ 131 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the word of our salesman against that of his cus- 
tomers. 

We began to realize that our prize package 
contained a sky-rocket, but, on the whole, enough 
goods “stuck” to convince us that we really had a 
good man, provided he could be made over to do 
business our way. We lost no opportunity of 
taking him vigorously to task. We gave him to 
understand how we wished him to govern himself 
in the discharge of our affairs. 

Gradually a little improvement was noticed. 
Complaints became less frequent and his sales con¬ 
tinued to increase; but at best he was nervous. 
He got mad at little “cropy” customers because 
they did not buy enough goods to suit him; then 
he would vary the programme by writing in that this 
or that line was not up to the standard. When 
he had exhausted his regular line of specialties, he 
would wrangle about his expense account. He was 
always “out” in making a settlement to the house, 
notwithstanding that it was expressly understood 
from the beginning that his daily allowance was not 
to exceed a stipulated amount. 

Training that man was more like an experience 
in fitting two lengths of stove-pipe than anything I 
have ever undertaken. As soon as one side was 
nicely adjusted it would bulge out on the other. If 
you have ever done any stove-pipe fitting, you 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

know that it is the most exasperating work that 
man was ever engaged in. Finally, with the aid 
of many heart-to-heart talks, we convinced him that 
there was but one way in which he could ever hope 
to build a safe and sound career; that he would 
never again have so good a chance to make the best 
of his opportunities in life; that if he failed to make 
good with us, the crisis in his business career would 
have been reached, then would come the reaction in 
a down-grade pace that all the influence in the world 
could not check. 

The turning-point came at last, and with it 
the admission from Mr. Sky-rocket that it was in¬ 
deed a revelation to him to see the manner in 
which our business was conducted, his great regret 
being that he had been deprived of such training 
earlier in life. 

His territory, which was generally hated, was 
in “ the enemy’s country. ” Under the new life that 
our made-over salesman gave it, however, it devel¬ 
oped into one of the best selling-assets of the house. 

The salesman who secures patronage for the 
moment by over-colored propositions and loosely 
fixed principles does no lasting harm to either his 
trade or his house. He merely fools himself. 

If Mr. Sky-rocket will stop cheating himself 
and look honestly into his career, he can read there 
pretty accurately what is going to happen to him. 

[ 133 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

And best of all, not only can he foretell his own 
business fortune, but he can control it, if he will be 
guided and warned by the weaknesses written on 
the pages of his own personality. 

If you are a Sky-rocket salesman, don’t look at 
the picture of your past misdirected effort in a 
careless kind of way. 

Don’t say, “ I’m just as good a salesman as So- 
and-so.” I know lots of people who might well 
investigate their own characters. When you retire 
for the night look into your own methods , study your 
own weaknesses. Tell yourself truthfully just where 
you fell down on this or that transaction, and follow 
along the lines of your misconduct to the inevitable 
end. If you are the least bit of a philosopher, you 
can see that the end will be failure and discharge, 
unless you are sincere, and mean to be guided by 
what you see in your character study. 

Make a new and determined effort to put 
yourself under the sort of control that leads to riches 
and honor. 

The young man going out on the road for the 
first time, if he is made of the right stuff, will soon 
learn the importance of knowing what not to do to 
insure his ultimate success. 

A well-known authority on salesmanship says: 

“The reason why there is no work in the world like 
that of the travelling salesman, where a man’s actions will 
[ 134 ] 


The Sky-Rocket Salesman 

so quickly determine his success or failure, is because per • 
haps that in no other vocation is a man put so absolutely 
upon his own honor and ability to work out his own salva- 
tion. ,, 

The realization of this does not come with the 
first trip. A salesman gets to know it only after he 
has been packing and unpacking trunks for several 
years. The best the salesman can attain to is what 
he learns by the “rubbing” process, taught only 
through bitter lessons in the school of experience. 

Learn in this school how to avoid doing the 
wrong thing. 


[ 135 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER X 


THE ALL-HEAD-AND-NO-SOUL SALESMAN 


Sharp men do not cut much ice. 


T HE riches of salesmanship depend as much 
upon what we sow as what we save. 

The All-head man is like a sponge, absorbing 
everything and giving out nothing. There is 
neither much of sentiment nor of sympathy in his 
mental make-up. 

We hear it said that the actions of one man 
proceed from his head, and those of another from 
his heart. This difference is usually pointed out by 
the man who prides himself on being “heady.” 
It is well to be “heady,” as the term goes, but there 
is such a thing as being too heady. 

A salesman is too “heady” when he measures 
the value of every sale by mere head-work, and does 
not allow anything for the natural influence of the 
soul qualities; when he does not take into considera¬ 
tion the greater results which might have been at¬ 
tained through combining brain stuff with soul stuff. 

On the other hand, a salesman is ruled too 
much by his heart when he disregards his head and 
either ignorantly or carelessly acts contrary to what 
sound experience has proven to be true. 

[ 136 ] 


The A ll-Head- and-No - Soul Salesman 

Give heed to this, then: Use your head to 
make your plans and carry them out , but don't neglect 
the promptings of your heart , just because you meet 
with a few men who have more heart than common 
sense. Soul qualities, those which spring from the 
heart, give life to your plans and actions. Balance 
head action with heart action. I have known 
some very brainy men who were wretched salesmen, 
simply because they had neglected to develop soul 
qualities in gathering their mental equipment 
together. But you could not get them to see it. 

The hardest kind of man to reach is the All¬ 
head man. “Stuff and nonsense,” says he, when 
you talk about the soul playing any part in sales¬ 
manship. He waves you off with, “That will do 
for women and children, but don’t talk it to me.” 

Strangely enough, failure is never humble. 

That’s because some one else is always to 
blame. We ourselves make our successes; the 
other fellow makes our failures. Failure, therefore, 
always thinks itself deserving of the success which 
it has not achieved. 

The science of salesmanship involves the exer¬ 
cise of the positive qualities of the body, mind, and 
soul. The last is perhaps one of the most impor¬ 
tant factors in successful salesmanship. Practical 
psychology as a mighty motive power in business¬ 
getting is receiving marked attention on the part of 
[ 137 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

intelligent commercial men everywhere. If travel¬ 
ling salesmen as a class were to set about the develop¬ 
ment of the powers and functions of the soul, such as 
faith, brotherly kindness, and reverence, and apply 
these in a practical way to the daily routine of their 
business life, the results of their work would be 
much enhanced. 

On a certain occasion the sales manager of a 
large house called one of his salesmen to his office 

and said to him: “ Mr. C-, you have represented 

us for two years in one of the best States in the Union. 
The results of your work have not been what we 
might expect. It is not our purpose to discourage 
you, but you have been two years planting seed 
down there — now for the harvest. We shall expect 
you to show largely increased sales during the next 
year. 

“ Now, let us examine the situation. You have 
an excellent territory, backed up by the strongest 
house in the world in our line; you have a personal 
asset in the way of general appearance that many 
men would give thousands to possess—a fine phy¬ 
sique, a pleasing countenance, and a good knowl¬ 
edge of the business. But you lact one thing.” 

“What is that?” asked the now thoroughly 
abashed but interested listener. 

“ Soul power, my boy. That’s it. You remind 
me of a fine piece of sculpture I once saw in Rome. 

[ 138 ] 


The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman 


It was a statue of Moses by Michelangelo. The 
work was so lifelike and so perfect in every detail 
that the great artist was overcome, and in his excite¬ 
ment struck it a severe blow on the knee, as if to 
awaken it to life, and commanded, ‘Speak, Moses!’ 

“ Your work lacks life — life of a nature born 
of real interest in your customers. You must culti¬ 
vate the qualities that will enable you to get close to 
people, permitting you to play upon the very harp- 
chords of the hearts of those with whom you come 
in contact. Learn to draw the sympathies of your 
trade to you , or you will never make your mark in 
salesmanship. 

“Now it is an actual fact that men generally 
act more on feeling than judgment. If you make 
your customers feel like buying, they are pretty sure 
to buy, but if they do not feel like it they won’t do it, 
even if they know they ought to. Your failure 
results from the fact that if there is no desire there 
is no possibility of doing business. 

“ Go out now and see if you cannot make your 
real power lie in your ability to awaken interest and 
create desire. 

“ Do not insist upon keeping yourself before 
your customer; bear in mind that he is not interested 
in you or your proposition. To make him care, 
begin as soon as possible by talking about his situa¬ 
tion, never mentioning yourself. In short, show 
[ 139 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

your customers that you are deeply interested in 
them.” 

Mr. C-thanked his manager, and, depart¬ 

ing, promised to act upon his advice. 

The very first day of the following week recorded 
an order from him for five hundred dollars that he 
secured from an old “ blue line ” merchant on a line 
of goods that he had always bought in another mar¬ 
ket. He increased his sales that year twenty-seven 
per cent, and all other departments of his work 
showed a decided improvement. He continued right 
on the next year to grow in usefulness to himself 
and his house, in a way that he had not dreamed of. 

The power to sway people is not altogether a 
gift, by any means. It can be cultivated. In most 
cases it merely requires an awakening of the soul 
faculties, as in the career of Mr. C-. 

The great majority of salesmen have neglected 
this side of their education, either from ignorance of 
its tremendous power as a commercial and selling 
asset, or because they regarded it from an erroneous 
standpoint, believing it should be regarded as mere 
sentimentalism. 

The work of the salesman differs little in char¬ 
acter from that of the lawyer, the preacher, the actor, 
or the statesman. In each of these professions suc¬ 
cess depends on the power to draw and persuade 
people. 


[ 140 ] 


The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman 


From a business standpoint, the most important 
self-knowledge is the discernment of one’s powers 
and the possibilities of their development. One of 
the greatest of these is the power of attraction. 
Many a great statesman has attained political favors 
of the highest nature by his wonderful psychologi¬ 
cal powers. 

Some men have the faculty of easily winning 
consent from the majority of their acquaintances; 
at least, to almost anything they propose. The 
essence of this quality is not in their logic — in 
the arguments and reasons with which they are 
equipped,— but in arousing an impulse in the 
listener to agree to the proposition that has been 
advanced, before hearing all the evidence, which he 
would usually require before making up his mind. 

Some years ago a remarkable demonstration 
along this line occurred in the city of Chicago, when 
from some previously unheard of Western town 
there came William Jennings Bryan, an unknown 
Congressman, as a delegate to a national political 
convention. In him this power had reached a won¬ 
derful degree of development. It had an irresisti¬ 
ble effect on most of the people who heard him. He 
did not have to force the acceptance of his views on 
the convention — the convention’s acceptance was 
a matter of course so soon as he claimed its attention. 
The man from the West sprang into leadership by 
[ 141 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

acclamation; he received the unanimous nomina¬ 
tion for the presidency of the United States, putting 
all other candidates entirely out of the race. 

Psychology forms the very basis of dramatic 
art. It is that power developed to a marked degree 
in a minister of the Gospel that causes him to move 
and sway a great concourse of people, drawing them 
to himself as one man. Salesman who have devel¬ 
oped this quality, in relating experiences of certain 
transactions, often speak of having felt a peculiar 
power of persuasion that could not possibly result 
in anything but success. Let the salesman once 
taste it, and a peculiar longing to meet people and 
sell goods will fasten itself upon him, impelling him, 
like Alexander, to look for new worlds to conquer. 
He will then have come into full realization of what 
it means to exert the power of his soul functions to 
the fullest degree, and his success will be an assured 
fact. 

Merchants will buy a bill from the purely 
“ head ” man now and then because he is surrounded 
with an atmosphere of seeming superiority, but they 
do not bestow on him large and continued favors. 
Somehow or other their sympathies are inclined 
toward the genial fellow who employs genuine 
whole-heartedness with his headiness. 

One of the “headiest” salesmen in our estab¬ 
lishment gloried in the boast of a twenty years’ 
[ 142 ] 


The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman 

experience on the road. He was a past master at 
analyzing a proposition; a regular “stand patter” on 
system. He constantly held up his sleeve a dozen 
theories for the successful management of every 
branch of the business, from the shipping depart¬ 
ment to the office of the president. 

He kept a watchful eye on every one about the 
place. For any one to make a mistake was with him 
an unpardonable sin. If an error occurred in any 
department, he went railing and fuming about, 
unmindful of the fact that his business was that of 
selling goods; forgetting in his uncharitableness, or 
rather, perhaps, never having known that the man 
who never made a mistake never made a success of 
business. 

There was a certain geniality of facial expression 
about this mathematically correct stickler for pre¬ 
cise business methods, but there was no sunshine 
in his soul. He never spoke a kind, helpful word 
to any one or about any one. He had no sympathy 
in common with his fellowmen, not the faintest con¬ 
ception of the life-giving precepts founded on the 
brotherhood of man. 

While still a young man, in place of crowning 
each successive year with increasing sales, he be¬ 
came soured and embittered, on finding his annual 
sales falling off and his salary cut down. This same 
man might have been a power in his profession, had 
[ 143 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

he but known and applied the A B C of practical 
psychology in the daily routine of his work. 

The brand of salesmanship that pays is the sort 
that plants the seed of the brotherhood of man in the 
soul , cheeriness and gentleness in the voice and man¬ 
ner, charity toward others in the thoughts, and a 
sympathetic, whole-souled genuineness in the hand¬ 
shake. There is no better selling-asset on earth. 

The All-head and No-soul Salesman must learn 
to mix soul stuff with his “ gray matter, ” if he ever 
expects to achieve lasting results. 






[ 144 ] 


The Old-Timer 


CHAPTER XI 

THE OLD-TIMER 

Don't get your headlight behind; reminis¬ 
cence means stagnation .— Elbert Hubbard. 

N EXT to being turned down in his first town, 
the youthful First-tripper encounters no greater 
discouragement than that of his initial meeting with 
the professional pessimistic Old-timer, with his per¬ 
petual grouch. 

A few words with this grumbler cause the young 
man to feel that the whole world of salesmanship is 
a d'smal slough; that nowhere in the great desert of 
commercial life is there a single oasis where the dusty, 
travel-stained wayfarer may rest his tired limbs and 
take fresh hope with which to renew his arduous 
journey. Nothing in the wide, wide 'world is as 
good as it used to be; everything is on the highway 
to perdition. If some good genie could only come 
along and by a wave of the hand and a “Presto, 
change” turn the whole business world backward 
twenty-five or thirty years to where it was when he 
first took up his gripsack, then the travelling man 
would have a fair chance. 

Where is the commercial traveller who has not 
encountered him and given him a wide berth ? He is 
to be seen in the hotel lobby, disputing his bill with 
[ 145 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the clerk because something or other went wrong. 
Next he is found quarrelling with the baggage agent 
at the depot for charging too much excess on his 
trunks. In the smoking compartment of the train 
he is telling the boys — if he is fortunate enough to 
have any listeners — that business has gone to the 
dogs, and that a travelling man’s life at best is 
nothing but a weary pilgrimage. 

If he has a beaten path, he is soon singled out 
as a bore and left to himself. For the same reason 
he loses business, his customers finding pleasure in 
giving their favors to the man who approaches with 
a light step and a cheery smile. 

Not all Old-timers are of this class by any 
means, but there are enough of them to warrant a 
passing glance at the type. The best thing for any 
young man to do is to leave him severely alone to 
continue his grumbling where no harm may be 
done. 

No character is more beautiful in the business 
world than that of the man of advanced years who 
has come all the way down through the trials and 
uncertainties of a busy career and preserved a cheer¬ 
ful disposition and optimistic temperament, keeping 
step with all the changes that betoken progress in 
any line of industry. 

You cannot go forward to any prize without 
leaving behind many things that seem desirable, 
f 146] 


The Old-Timer 

Pessimism dwarfs and dries up the soul; it kills 
ambition. 

Honest admiration for progress is an incentive 
to good work; it develops and gives strength to all 
the ambitions. 

Among commercial travellers there are many 
men of actual ability whose entire lives have been 
thrown away because of their bitter hatred for and 
constant opposition to progress of any sort. A habit 
of mind once formed is hardly ever lost; and there 
is no more common habit, unfortunately, among this 
class than that of envy and bitterness toward innova¬ 
tions. Among salesmen how many words are wasted 
in decrying the real worth of others! A successful 
salesman, old or young, is too busy to think of chang¬ 
ing times or of what others are doing, unless it be to 
look occasionally with approval and admiration at 
the progressive and the successful and say, “I am glad 
that times are growing better,” or, “I am pleased 
he is doing so well. I shall try to improve also.” 

Do we not all know instinctively, as soon as we 
hear a man talk optimistically or praise another 
freely and highly, that the man who talks thus is 
himself on the right track ? And do we not all know 
that the man criticising, attacking, and belittling 
real effort is small, and growing smaller ? 

Unless the heart is .light, we cannot keep pace 
with the times. ♦ 


[ 147 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“ Bigotry puts blinders on the best of men.” 

The value of keeping step is humorously illus¬ 
trated in a story I once heard Alexander H. Revell, 
a prominent Chicago merchant and public-spirited 
man, tell on himself. 

In the year 1877 he joined a regiment of State 
militia. On a certain public occasion before Mr. 
Revell had graduated from the awkward squad, 
the regiment turned out on dress parade, he being 
given the end of a line in the march. He had a 
maiden aunt with soldier blood in her veins, in¬ 
herited from Colonial days. She, with others, had 
a prominent place in the store window facing the 
line of march. As the regiment appeared, her enthu¬ 
siasm knew no bounds. The old-time spirit fired her 
blood, as she fairly glowed with satisfaction, com¬ 
menting on each company as it passed. When the 
company arrived in which her nephew was march¬ 
ing, she was observed to wear an expression of per¬ 
plexity, and was heard to remark: ‘‘Look! look at 
that company! Every single man is out of step except 
my nephew Alexander.” 

The trouble with every Old-timer who is out 
of tune with the universe is that he thinks every¬ 
thing in it is out of step and out of harmony but 
himself. 

While engaged in a special line of work in con¬ 
nection with the Chicago Commercial Association 
[148] 


The Old-Timer 


I once had occasion to call to arms a large number 
of business men in that city eligible to membership. 
Among the hundreds of replies received there was one 
from a man old enough to be my grandfather that set 
my red corpuscles to tingling. It is the best illustra¬ 
tion of optimism in old age that I have ever encoun¬ 
tered. In the hope that it may inspire every young 
man, as it did the author, I publish the letter 
verbatim. 

“ My dear Sir: 

“ Your kind invitation to become one of the 
Bully, Busy, Brother Boosters is received, and I am 
exceedingly sorry to have to send regrets, only on 
account of my financial inability. 

“ Yes, I attended the Goodfellowship Supper 
and took great delight in the many good things that 
were said about Chicago, and to see the determina¬ 
tion of that magnificent body of live men, live work¬ 
ers, showing they were all connected with a live wire, 
and would make Chicago a good place to live. I 
first saw Chicago the year that Mr. Wacker said he 
was born —1856. 

“ My heart is with you, and what influence I 
have shall be used toward making Chicago a greater 
Chicago, and in doing what I can to improve the 
condition of my fellowmen. 

“ I have been closely associated with the whole- 
[149] 


Men Who Sell Things 

sale grocery trade of Chicago and the entire North¬ 
west for fifty years, and, though seventy-one years 
old, am an active, live broker, working every day in 
the year. 

“ The old man with the napkin in his hand, op¬ 
posite the word ‘ciation’ in the lower left hand 
corner of your ‘Appeal to join the Legion,’ is me. 
I just got in by the skin of my face.” 

The last paragraph of this remarkable letter re¬ 
fers to his attendance at the Goodfellowship Supper. 

Our progress is made by what we forget as well 
as by what we remember. Too many of us remem¬ 
ber the wrong things. We need to learn what to 
forget. We all dislike to remember that we are 
sometimes wrong and need to be straightened out. 
It hurts to have the kinks taken out. Of course 
you have no kinks; but your neighbor has,—we’ve 
heard you say so. Well, then, it’s a good thing to 
get a picture of your neighbor. It will help you to 
learn how he can be straightened. That’s a matter 
of vital importance. 

Diplomacy above all other things should become 
more deep-seated with the salesman who has long 
served in the harness. 

The salesman who is a born diplomat has much 
to thank the fates and his parents for; but what is 
still lacking in his princely heritage may be acquired, 
[ 150 ] 


The Old-Timer 


like many other valuable qualities; without it the 
salesman is like a ship without a rudder, caught in 
the trough of the sea of commercial competition. 

Reduced to its lowest terms , diplomacy is just 
plain , good horse sense. 

A diplomat is a man who jumps from in front of 
a moving train. He does not put dynamite in his 
oven to dry. He has due respect for the hind quar¬ 
ters of a strange mule. He reins up on perceiving 
a red light in the centre of the road. He talks to the 
point when he addresses a brusque business man. 
He does not feed the animals at the circus. He be¬ 
lieves in to-day, and that to-morrow is worth only 
twenty-four hours of uncertainty. He believes that 
human nature is the humanest thing on earth, and 
therefore makes his own deductions for egotism, 
grouchiness, reserve, penury, and woe; and he does 
not prod them with a sharp-pointed rod when to do 
so would bring only defeat. 

Chicanery is not diplomacy , and policy is often 
deceit; both are bogus when measured by the stand¬ 
ard of true tact. 

It is mean to press an unfair advantage, but the 
man is a simpleton who refuses to recognize the ad¬ 
vantage that is rightly his. 

The born salesman, young or old, is the one who 
towers head and shoulders above his fellows in the 
science of reading human nature. 

[151] 


Men Who Sell Things 

There should be no age limit for The Man Who 
Sells Things, provided he retains his youth in old 
age. 

“It is better to wear out than to rust out Good 
hard work, performed with a cheerful disposition or 
temperament, never yet produced creeping paralysis 
under three-score years and ten, at least. Age does 
not disable a man, but inactivity, lack of progressive 
instinct, or a despondent disposition does. 

If the salesman wants to preserve his usefulness 
and likewise his position, he must not become an¬ 
tiquated in his methods. 

One of the most common and most fatal of mis¬ 
takes made by many middle-aged salesmen is that 
when they have built up a good trade and are 
headed well up toward the top of the sales list of 
their firms, they seem content with the record they 
have made, and are inclined to rest on their oars. 
At the precise moment when energy and advance¬ 
ment no longer enter their calculations, decay sets 
in. The trade that has required years of patient, 
intelligent toil to establish will soon be gobbled up 
by energetic young fellows eager for the fray. 

I well remember witnessing, when a boy, a 
twenty-five-mile bicycle race. It was the champion¬ 
ship race for the long-distance record of the world, 
and was participated in by two brothers, famous the 
country over for speed and power of endurance. 

[152] 


The Old-Timer 


They held all manner of medals and prizes for races 
won, and were quickly picked as the winners of the 
race on that day. 

It was a beautiful day; the occasion was a gala 
one; the clear, crisp air was fraught with excitement 
in anticipation of the results that would determine the 
world’s championship. 

The two brothers were cheered again and again 
as they mounted their wheels and rode leisurely away 
to what was generally conceded to be another victory 
to be added to their already long list of conquests in 
the sport. 

The first lap of six miles was finished with the 
contestants pretty well bunched as they passed the 
judges’ stand. The friends of the favorites ex¬ 
pressed surprise because the brothers had not left the 
others behind at the offset. Confidently, however, 
they believed that the finish of the half would see 
them well in the lead. 

A great shout rent the air as the riders hove in 
sight on the second lap. As they came nearer it was 
observed that the brothers, although riding close 
together, were distanced several lengths by three 
others who seemed determined on keeping the lead. 
As they passed, they apparently were riding easily, 
with no thought of defeat; but their apparent con¬ 
fidence was not shared by the anxious crowd. A 
foreboding swept over the throng, not so much from 
[153] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the position of the riders as from that indefinable 
suspicion that all was not right. 

Cries of dismay were quickly suppressed on the 
assurance of the over-confident ones that all good 
riders started that way,— slowly and without effort, 
— holding in reserve their speed and strength, in¬ 
creasing these as the race continued, and finishing 
with a burst of both. 

Anxiously we waited for the finish of the three- 
quarters. A cloud of dust announced the leaders 
in the distance as they rounded the home-stretch. 
On they came, tearing like mad straight for the wire, 
where the crowd was thickest. Like a flash they 
were past — each man was bending lower and work¬ 
ing like a Trojan. In a second they were out of 
sight again around the curve — but that second was 
all that was necessary to disclose the sickening fact 
that the distance between the brothers and the first 
rider had not been diminished. The confident ones 
still adhered to their first theory, which seemed to 
bring a measure of assurance, for at last the brothers 
were working with a determination that bordered on 
the supernatural. 

The agony was soon over. The last half was 
finished in about half the time the others had re¬ 
quired. As the riders again appeared in the home¬ 
stretch the vast crowd was on tip-toe, anxiously 
hoping for the best; which meant that the race 
[154] 


The Old-Timer 


must be won by the favorites. The rider who had 
held the lead all along was a stranger, and naturally 
was regarded as an intruder. 

All things must end some time, happily or 
otherwise, and that race was soon finished. 

There is little else to tell that cannot easily be 
imagined; the brothers failed to regain the position 
lost on the start through over-confidence resultant 
from past achievements. When they came up to 
the judges’ stand, willing but disappointed hands 
helped their almost lifeless forms from their wheels, 
and carried them away from the field of conquest, 
which, for them, had been turned into defeat. Past 
honors could not win a race that depended solely 
on present opportunity. With that defeat, their 
daring and skill seemed to desert them. Like the 
bird with the broken wing that never soars so high 
again, they were not heard much of after that in 
racing circles. 

I have seen many such cases among salesmen 
in my business career. 

Don't become antiquated in your business meth¬ 
ods; don’t let your customers see that younger men 
are more energetic, more up-to-date than yourself. 

If you want to hold old customers and make new 
ones every year — which is absolutely necessary — 
you must be 'progressive and aggressive. 

March forward with the times. Then you will 
[155] 


Men Who Sell Things 

hold your place in the ranks of salesmen as well as 
any young man starting on the road to-day. 

Close your eyes and think of the past, the pres¬ 
ent, and the future, and — 

“ Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 

Old Time is still a-flying, 

And this same flower that smiles to-day, 
To-morrow will be dying.” 


It is far better to be optimistic , even though we 

begin late in life. 

“Drop a word of cheer and kindness — just a flash, and it 
is gone, 

But there’s half a hundred ripples circling on, and on, and 
on, 

Bearing hope, and joy, and comfort, on each splashing, 
dashing wave, 

Till you would n’t believe the volume of the one kind word 
you gave. 

“Drop a word of cheer and kindness — in a minute you 
forget, 

But there’s gladness still a-swelling, and there *s joy a- 
circling yet; 

And you’ve rolled a wave of comfort, whose sweet music 
can be heard 

Over miles and miles of water, just by dropping a kind 
word.” 


[ 156 ] 





The Old-Timer 


“ Hard licks make good luckT 


The Base-Ball Game of Life 

Life is like a base-ball game, 

With Chance as pitcher: Fate, 

Alert, determined, pitiless, 

Stands just behind the plate. 

Out in the field are Hopelessness, 

Timidity, and all 
Our other weaknesses prepared 
To catch or stop the ball. 

The stands are filled with many who 
Accord us hoots and jeers, 

And sprinkled with them, are a few 
Who give us honest cheers. 

And each man gets his chance to bat, 

And many fan the air, 

And now and then one makes a hit, 

And wins out then and there. 

Life is like a base-ball game, 

And bitterly we choose 
To fasten all the blame on Luck, 

The umpire, when we lose. 

E. Kiser, in the “Chicago Record-Herald.” 


[ 157 ] 



Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER XII 

THE RIGHT KIND OP SALESMAN 

You shall find no boy's play here , I 
can tell you. 

Thou ever strong upon the stronger 
side l 

Thou Fortune's champion l 

When the hurly burly's done. When 
the battle's lost and won. 

To attempt a great work is to become a 
great worker. 

j No man rises without being knocked 
down a jew times. 

The front door to success lies through 
the garden of duty. 

A salesman's science never dies so long 
as it is doing something. 

S UCCESSFUL salesmanship is a product of the 
positive qualities. Its component parts might 
best be indicated in the statement that the Right 
Kind of a Salesman has what his negative brethren 
have not. 

In place of being a knocker, he is a booster; 
in place of being an order-taker, he is a business- 
getter; in place of being fussy or over-anxious, he is 
composed, but aggressive; in place of being a wheel- 
[158] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

barrow, he is a Great Mogul; in place of being a 
know-it-all, he is keen and dignified; in place of 
being quick-tempered, he is self-poised and genial; 
in place of being a sky-rocket, he is a wear-weller; 
in place of being all head and no soul, he is a mix¬ 
ture of both; in place of being an old-timer or^a- 
down-and-outer, he is an up-and-inner. 

By this I do not mean to imply that right sales¬ 
men possess all the positive qualities that enter into 
successful salesmanship, but the average is good. 

I have known many “ top-notchers ” in our profes¬ 
sion, not one of whom but was marked by some 
specific qualification that easily distinguished him 
from the man of mediocre ability. 

In every case there showed development of some 
one positive quality to a marked degree,— such as 
educated enthusiasm, unswerving fidelity to pur¬ 
pose, persistent determination to win, a thorough 
knowledge of his own business and a reasonable con¬ 
ception of business interests in general, with a fair 
balance of other requisites, like tact, honesty, and 
good-fellowship. 

It goes without saying that an indispensable con¬ 
dition for success in every career is contained in a 
single word — W ORK. 

The little girl was perfectly correct in her answer 
when the teacher asked her to give an example of a 
quadruped. 


[ 159 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“A horse/' was the reply. 

“Correct. Give another example/’ 

“Another horse.” No room for doubt there. 

And thus, in this and every other age, in the 
lives of all men who do things , there has been but 
one way to spell success, and that is — W-O-R-K, 
WORK. 

A salesman may be brainy, but he must work; 
honest, but he must work; diplomatic, but he must 
work; optimistic, but he must WORK. 

If he would graduate from the classes we have 
been discussing in the nine preceding chapters, and 
come into the field of endeavor worth while, he must 
work. 

W T hat does an optimist do ? 

Having the choice of many opportunities, he 
chooses them all. Just the reverse of the pessimist, 
who, having the choice of two evils, chooses both. 

Again, being of good cheer and good faith, he 
counts every day a good day in his struggle for self- 
mastery and higher and better results, looking toward 
permanency. 

The only sure way to win is to commence to win 
from the start , and then—keep everlastingly at it. 

Another and most pronounced feature of suc¬ 
cessful salesmanship is faith. 

It is exceedingly difficult to get many otherwise 
bright and capable men to realize that their lack of 
[ 160 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

success is more often due to a lack of faith in them¬ 
selves than to any other one tiling. 

I shall never forget the inspiration that was 
mine when I first thoroughly learned the lesson of 
the value of faith in one’s self and surroundings. 

For several years I was equally interested with 
four others in a jobbing business which was located 
in an isolated market, and which yielded but a 
fair working salary to its owners. I grew restless 
because we were unable to build the business up to a 
point of greater profit, and determined to cut loose 
and seek more lucrative fields, where there would 
be some possibility of expansion. 

Having carefully considered several proposi¬ 
tions, I finally selected the one that, so far as I could 
judge, held forth the best advantages for a perma¬ 
nent and successful future. 

The deal closed, I removed to another and much 
larger city to enter upon a three years’ contract as 
sales manager for the largest house of its kind in the 
world, employing a force of forty general salesmen 
and twice as many stock or house men. I entered up¬ 
on my new duties filled to the brim with enthusiasm, 
believing that I knew salesmen from A to Z, having 
travelled myself ten years, before taking charge of 
our own salesmen in the business that I had just left. 

But I soon learned that I still had a great deal 
to learn in the management of so large a force. The 
[ 161 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

experience was not only newer and larger than any¬ 
thing I had previously undertaken, but my new house 
had not up to that time conducted a thorough sales 
department under a managing head, such as was 
then being installed in all large concerns. 

This meant that I had two new propositions to 
work out — the organization of the men, and the 
organization of the department. And right here, 
with all due respect to our men — for they were the 
best in the business — let me say that, for a new 
man coming into a new house to tackle a new 
proposition like that, where so many travelling 
salesmen were concerned, was like running a col¬ 
lege freshman up against a Rugby foot-ball team for 
the first time. 

Naturally the men regarded me with suspicion 
and as an intruder, coming among them perhaps to 
limit their freedom and to make their future a night¬ 
mare of red-tape rules and regulations. 

Carefully I figured this all out beforehand, and 
well did I know that I should have to gain their con¬ 
fidence before instituting any radical new policies. 

Somehow or other things did not progress as 
nicely as I had calculated they would, and I began to 
construe their attitude toward the new departure as 
being hostile to me. The men were slow in making 
or reciprocating friendly overtures, and instead of 
taking things easy, working the meanwhile along the 
[ 162 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

lines of least resistance, I began to force things; but 
I soon learned the error of such a policy. Every¬ 
thing was really going along as well as could be ex 
pected under the circumstances, but I could not see 
it that way. 

The trouble? Impatience, that's all,— the 
common fault of most young men who want to get 
on in the world. Impatience is about as useless a 
thing as any young man can encumber himself with. 
It produces no end of worry and absolutely nothing 
in the way of profit. 

The trouble I was experiencing was due to im¬ 
patience, and was for the most part an imaginary 
and not a real trouble. 

If there was discord in our work together, it 
was simply and solely because I was continually an¬ 
ticipating something of the sort — as the boys would 
say, “ sort of egging it on in my mind.” 

I worked on in that mental atmosphere for sev¬ 
eral months, chafing inwardly at this chimerical 
enmity between the men and their manager, at the 
same time putting on the best front I could muster. 

Finally, one morning I had an awakening. It 
was a rude shock, but it did the business. 

While speeding along on an “L” train to the 
office, I began to arraign myself something after this 
fashion 

“You’re a nice sort of sales manager! You 
[163] 


Men Who Sell Things 

preach Faith continually to your men, and you 
have n’t a drop in your own veins. You ’re not will¬ 
ing to meet your men half-way on confidence, while 
expecting every man jack o’ them to give to you, a 
stranger, the fullest degree of that precious article. 
Here you’ve been building up trouble for yourself 
in your mind all these months on account of the sins 
of the other fellow, when the trouble lies entirety 
with yourself. Now, this can’t go on much longer. 
This whole business is mere mental moonshine, if 
you only had good horse sense enough to realize it. 

“ There’s nothing in the world the matter, ex¬ 
cept with yourself. Sweep the cobwebs of distrust 
out of the place where your gray matter is supposed 
to be — and likewise the despondency out of your 
mental atmosphere, and things will look different. 

“You are doing good work. You have heard 
no complaint from headquarters. Your methods 
are all right. Both will win out in time if you ’ll 
give them a fair chance. Now, brace up and have 
FAITH in your house , your men , your 'proposition , 
and yourself. 

“That’s all you need —just faith, coupled with 
good horse sense.” 

There was no rebuttal evidence. The examina¬ 
tion finished, on reaching my office I rested the case, 
and that was all there was to it. 

From that hour, things took on a different hue. 

[ 164 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

Everything connected with my department moved 
forward with a vigor and a satisfaction that were 
reassuring, to say the least. 

That mental blue-print of myself was my 
salvation, and added immeasurably to the comfort 
and well-being of all concerned. 

It’s a great thing to have faith in yourself,— 
not too much, but enough to keep you from slipping 
backward in the race for success. 

The famous Glasgow clergyman, Mr. John Mc¬ 
Neil, while preaching in Chicago during the World’s 
Fair year, wishing to emphasize the value of faith, 
related the following rather remarkable incident 
which occurred in his career as pastor. Said he: 

“ Many Christian people have their prayers only half 
answered because they have not sufficient faith that they 
will be answered in full. Let me illustrate that. 

“During my pastorate of a certain church in-, 

we had occasion to make extensive repairs, and the church 
was heavily in debt. It worried me a great deal, and I 
made it a subject of much prayer. A stranger called on 
me one day in my study, and to my utter amazement he 
said: ‘Mr. McNeil, you do not know who I am, and it does 
not matter. I understand you have a debt on your church 
that you are anxious to pay. I have heard a great deal 
about you and the work you are doing, and I want to help 
you with that debt.’ 

“Taking a check-book out of his pocket, he tore out 
a blank and laid it before me on my desk. ‘There,’ said 
he, ‘fill that out for the amount you require, and I will 
return later and sign it’; and he was gone before I could 
stop him. 


[ 165 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“I sat there looking at that blank check, failing to 
comprehend what it all meant. ‘Surely/ said I, ‘he does 
not realize that the amount of our debt runs into thousands 
of pounds sterling. He would never give that much if he 
knew. But he told me to make it out for the full amount. 
No. He could n’t have knowm. I ’ll put down half the 
amount. I am afraid when he sees how large it is he will 
not sign even for that amount.’ 

“ After a little the stranger returned, asked for the 
check, and with scarcely a glance he affixed his signature, 
took up his hat, and left without another word. 

“Mechanically I looked at the bit of paper, felt it, 
searched it; at last the name drew and held my gaze. 
With peculiar force the truth dawned upon me, and like¬ 
wise the genuineness of the check. The signature was 
that of a wealthy and philanthropic man whose generous 
acts were well known to me, although I had never met him 
before. When I realized that he meant what he said, and 
could easily have paid the whole amount of the debt, I said, 
‘ O man of little faith! I will never doubt again.’ ” 

That story is a faithful picture of many men 
in the business life who fail to take opportunity 
when it is offered. 

To every salesman Opportunity opens the door 
to success. Those who perceive and enter gain 
the treasure. To those who do not heed, Oppor¬ 
tunity says: 

Master of human destinies am I; 

Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait; 
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate 

Deserts and seas remote, and passing by 
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late 
I knock unbidden once at every gate. 

[ 166 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

If sleeping, wake; feasting, rise before 
I turn away. It is the hour of fate, 

And they who follow me reach every state 
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 

Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate, 
Condemned to failure, penury, and woe, 

Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore. 

I answer not, and I return no more. 

John J. Ingalls. 

Successful salesmen — those who make terri¬ 
tories yield a permanent, profitable business, the 
sort who “ wear ” well — must and do possess strong 
positive force. 

Doubt befogs mind force. Indecision crucifies 
precision of action. 

Inoculation of doubts in the salesman’s mind 
poisons his enthusiasm. 

There is little doubt that the degree of a man’s 
power of persuasion depends upon his earnestness 
and enthusiasm. 

Persistently thinking right means 'persistently 
acting right . 

The true salesman learns what kind of thoughts 
count; he thinks them, acts them, until they become 
a part of his being, forming the directing force in 
his success. 

The Right Kind of Salesman begins by training 
himself. From the first mistake in the first town of 
his first trip until he lays down his grip for the last 
time, he is in constant training. 

[187] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Early in his career he discovers — and what a 
power that discovery is! — that the same tactics he 
would employ in training his horse would, if used 
upon himself, secure him against doubt and failure. 

Over and over again with infinite patience and 
determination he declares to himself with spirit, 
“ I Will ” and “ I Am ”— until he comes to a thor¬ 
ough belief in his power to win men and sales. 
Right thinking and right doing — those are the 
means by which he keeps his name at the top of the 
sales list. 

The Right Kind of Salesman has no fear of 
opposition, whether it be from his customers or 
his competitors. 

How well he knows from experience in his 
early days that to listen to rebuff with ears that hear 
is but to succumb to a greater force than he himself 
possesses! Sharp thrusts received in the school of 
experience cause him to be watchful. Constantly 
he cultivates the thoughts and habits in himself 
that teach him how to parry successfully all negative 
influence from within or without. 

All successful salesmen are optimistic. They 
see only the side of things that wins, and recognize 
no superior among competitors. The real salesman 
so schools himself that he is able to sell a poor line 
of goods on a poorer territory, solely upon the 
strength of his own personality. What a mighty 
[ 168 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

human dynamo he is when he finds his lot cast 
among circumstances wholly congenial! And so 
the world about him always moves onward to better 
and bigger things; slowly but surely he leaves 
behind to rust and shrivel and die every adverse 
suggestion, everything that has tended to lessen his 
power. 

It is lack of brain activity that keeps the class 
of salesmen that go round and round and round, 
year in and year out doing things in the same old 
way, always hugging the despicable place at the 
bottom of the sales sheet. 

It is lack of the kind of brains that work and 
dig and sweat till they find a way to get things done, 
brains that go to the bottom of things, brains that 
are always looking for better things, brains that 
never give up a problem till they find a way to 
solve it. . 

In mechanics to-day the electric dynamo 
stands as the highest development of mechanical 
power. Among salesmen the highest is the human 
dynamo, the man whose brain is charged with 
dynamic force; whose heart is on fire with enthu¬ 
siasm and push; who leads the strenuous life and 
likes it; who is always dissatisfied, always fighting 
for bigger and better results; who sets his goal-post 
far out in the field of endeavor, and knows no rest 
until he reaches it; who is on the keen scent for 
[ 169 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

newer and better ideas to help him in his work; 
who is walling to sweat blood to get what he wants; 
who believes the head of his house and his manager 
know as much as he does; who believes the credit 
man will give both himself and his customers a 
square deal; who believes that the buyers of the 
establishment that pays him his salary know as much 
about buying goods as he does about selling them; 
who knows that the goods of his house are good 
goods, the right kind, and will sell, and that he can 
sell them; who spurns the habits of indifference, of 
shirking, of mischief-making, of arrogance toward 
customers, of mutual jealousy, the “click” habit; 
who avoids, as evidence of weakness, such thoughts 
as “Oh, what’s the use? The sales manager’s 
got it in for me. He’s a dreamer, anyway. I 
always get the worst end of everything, no matter 
what I do.” The model salesman avoids , as worst 
of all , the habit of fault-finding and criticism of 
superiors. He is the kind of salesman that forms 
the title of this chapter. It is that kind, and no 
other, that gets the big prizes in the business game. 

What are you, Mr. Salesman ? 

A human dynamo, or just a common member 
of the Sons of Rest ? Never mind the other fellow 
— how is it with yourself ? That is the question. 

Are you cultivating confidence in the value of 
your own ideas, and in your power to use them? 

[ 170 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

Did it ever occur to you that you could do as well 
as others, if you would only bring yourself to believe 
it ? 

I have observed in many successful salesmen 
the desire and willingness to grasp at every good idea 
from any source that will aid them in making sales. 
The humblest men in our profession are those who 
are at the head. 

I remember on a certain occasion issuing a 
statement to our travelling force, which was intended 
to inspire in them an optimistic survey of the month 
upon which we were about to enter. The state¬ 
ment contained facts and figures of the month just 
ended, showing the percentage of increase in various 
departments, and wound up with a forecast of the 
month to come as viewed from the standpoint of 
the managing staff. The men were all in from 
the road, winding up a period of house trade, and 
about to depart for a “filling in” trip. 

A few minutes after the letter had been dis¬ 
tributed, I chanced to saunter down “ Salesmen’s 
Row,” the name the stock-boys had given the aisle 
that skirted their long row of desks. My approach 
was unnoticed by a group of salesmen clustered 
about the desk of one of our “Sons of Rest,” who 
happened to have the distinction of being the ring¬ 
leader of a small coterie of professional critics. 

He was reading aloud to the others from my 
[ 171 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

statement, and had reached the part concerning the 
forecast of the coming month, when he laid the 
paper down and in a tone of withering sarcasm 
said, “Umph! The idle dream of an office man.” 

Catching the exclamation on passing, I wheeled 
and squarely faced him. Perceiving me standing 
there for the first time, he became confused. His 
eyes sought the floor as he blurted out, “A fine 
letter, sir, and right to the point. Hit the nail right 
on the head. Yes, sir, hit the nail right on the head.” 

Six weeks later the man who led the force in 
point of sales and general efficiency bustled into my 
office, just in from his trip. Warmly extending his 
hand, he said in tones of deep appreciation: 

“That statement you compiled just before I 
left home did the business. It helped me wonder¬ 
fully. It was tough work landing business this trip; 
but on one occasion when I had sweat blood with a 
dealer in my sample-room without being able to 
sell him, I pulled out your letter and read it to him. 
Stamped as it was with the authority of the house, 
it made an impression, helping me to get some hard 
orders that otherwise I would have lost. Send me 
that kind of stuff as often as you get it out.” 

His attitude, coupled with that simple state¬ 
ment, furnished the key to his success, namely, that 
he was alert, and made use of everything that could 
possibly contribute to his success in sales-making. 

[ 172 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

A day or two later brought in the other man, 
the leader of the Order of the Sons of Rest. As 
may easily be imagined, he reported a poor trip. 
He had all manner of excuses to offer for his failure. 
Failure and excuses go together. 

If such salesmen could only read what takes 
place in their employer’s mind when weighing the 
salesmen on his staff, one against another, there 
would be at least a slight hope of their being grad¬ 
uated from the Order of the Sons of Rest, but their 
untrained powers of calculation do not admit of their 
philosophizing so far. 

Believing the opportunity was at hand to arouse 
Mr. S. O. R. Van Winkle from his state of selling- 
lethargy, I asked him whether or not he had found 
the statement issued by the sales department just 
before he left of any use to him on his trip. He 
looked perplexed, scratched his head, and remarked 
that he could not remember just what statement I 
referred to. There were many statements issued. 
He thought he could find it in his grip, where he 
carried all current mail from the house; he would 
look it up when he returned home that evening. 

“No matter. Let it go, let it go,” said I. 
“ It’s too late to use it now, but let me remind you 
that that little piece of paper you misinterpreted to 
your fellow-salesmen as ‘ An idle dream of an office 
man ’ helped one of our men to increase by a goodly 
[ 173 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

margin, while you have been idling along in an 
atmosphere of self-satisfied self-efficiency, which has 
amounted to nothing more than inefficiency.” 

The salesman who hopes to get on in the world 
comes to know sooner or later that 

Knowledge is 'proud that he has learned so much; 

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. 

The salesman who succeeds believes that his 
position implies that the firm puts its trust in him, 
that it calls for the best work in him, and that he 
should perform it to the best of his ability. That 
is the only view that brings any satisfaction to the 
doer. 

The salesman who skimps his work not only runs 
an excellent chance of being detected , but he is con¬ 
stantly injuring himself. 

The position of the salesman at the top of the 
sales sheet may seem to be up-hill, but to the sales¬ 
man on the down-grade it only increases the oppor¬ 
tunities of the up-grade man to try to cheat. 

No salesman ever built his house upon the sands 
but some hurricane came along and blew it over. In 
this age of lightning-like business changes, who can 
predict when the next hurricane will arrive ? When 
it comes to the salesman it is better for him to be 
living in a secure place. 

No salesman can tell to what test his salesman¬ 
ship will be put. It is better, then, to fortify himself 
[ 174 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

against the day of trial with true knowledge, so that 
no matter what strain is put upon it, his professional 
skill will pass through triumphantly and bring to him 
promotion and honor. 

The most selfish salesmen agree that it is poor 
policy, if nothing worse, to cheat oneself. The best 
is none too good to attempt. 

It is sometimes necessary to have nerve enough 
to lose some business, in order to gain the best busi¬ 
ness that is to be secured on your territory. A great 
many salesmen form the practice in sales-building of 
holding a dime so close to the eye that they fail 
utterly to perceive the dollars beyond. 

One of the most successful salesmen of my ac¬ 
quaintance employed the quality of self-restraint in 
his work on the road to a marked degree. 

At the time of my first meeting with him he was 
very much cast down because his house had inti¬ 
mated a desire to let him go, for the reason that his 
sales did not seem large enough for the territory he 
was covering — mostly in large cities. 

He related his experience to me, and his plan 
was one of the most logical I have ever known; but 
during the two years he had been representing that 
house he had not been able to secure their confi¬ 
dence to the extent that he could frankly confide in 
them his plans for ultimate success. 

We talked things over, and I encouraged him to 
[ 175 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

persist in his methods, maintaining that they were 
bound to win, because, whether he knew it or not, he 
was working along highly scientific lines. I urged 
him to take his managers more fully into his con¬ 
fidence, which he was shortly afterwards able to do 
through a fortunate combination of circumstances. 
And then I watched him advance, which he did by 
leaps and bounds. To-day he enjoys an enviable 
reputation for high-grade salesmanship in that very 
house that wanted to let him out a few years since. 

On first entering his territory, his plan was to 
look the ground over carefully. He then com¬ 
menced to build, always with an eye to the future. 
The prospect of immediate sales failed to dazzle him, 
unless they were of the sort that would make good 
timber for erecting his superstructure as a whole. 

When calling on the trade in a large city, it was 
entirely foreign to his policy to jump right in and sell 
to every dealer that had a Bradstreet or Dun rating 
that would pass muster in the credit department. 
Instead, he cautiously laid his acquaintance among 
a limited number of the very best merchants, and 
began by trying to secure their confidence, and thus 
draw their sympathy largely to himself and his house. 
He believed that the best way to do that was not by 
selling them the largest possible bill every time he 
had a chance, but by often selling them the smallest 
bill possible. 


[ 176 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

Frequently on his return visits, if conditions 
were not just right, he would not attempt a sale at all, 
preferring to cement his relations by helpful sugges¬ 
tions, and otherwise strengthen his position in their 
confidence. 

In starting a new customer , he highly favored the 
'plan of selling merely a sample or “ sorting up ” order. 
From the small vantage-point gained, step by step he 
followed up his work, never permitting himself to 
betray a confidence once reposed in him by over¬ 
loading a customer. 

He was clear-headed, patient, honest, logical, 
courteous, always on his guard, and extremely tact¬ 
ful. Finally, when his preliminary work was com¬ 
plete, he moved in and took possession of his own. 
He sells the very best accounts in his territory, and 
no competitor can either undermine or wrench away 
from him the confidence his customers repose in him. 

To sum up his work from start to finish, he 
succeeded because he was not over-anxious, and 
knew the value of making his work fit a set plan. 

It is a great thing to be able to play, not a dull 
game, but a waiting game in salesmanship. The 
salesman gets what he goes after, provided only he is 
not afraid to work and sweat. But he must not for¬ 
get that it is a good thing to sweat mentally once in 
a while, as well as physically. 

There are no dull months for the intelligent 
[ 177 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

salesman. Dull months are for dull salesmen, not 
for live ones. If you were a carpenter and your saw 
was dull, would you say, “I can’t work this month; 
my saw is dull ” ? No. You would get up early in 
the morning and file that saw before breakfast. You 
would make it eat its way through an oak board 
like a ten-year-old boy through a piece of pump¬ 
kin pie. 

The live salesman does exactly the same thing. 
At the first sign of approaching dulness he sharpens 
up his business tools and goes after business. And 
he gets it, too. 

The salesman who expects trade to be dull, and 
is willing it should be dull, will have it dull. 

Likewise the salesman who expects his customers 
to have no more confidence in him than in the ordi¬ 
nary salesman will find just what he expects. 

The salesman who lags back on the straight and 
narrow path of rectitude, and says, “ I’ve got my 
customers just where I want them now, and I’ll take 
pretty good care that they get enough of my goods 
to keep them from buying elsewhere,” just because 
he has succeeded in winning their confidence for the 
time being, will get just what he is looking for,— lost 
prestige, by the shortest possible route. You can 
have lost prestige, like dull months, if you want it. 
But you ’ll be out of date if you get either, because 
confidence is the basis of all right trade. 

[ 178 ] 


The Right Kind of Salesman 

The Right Kind of Salesman believes in doing 
his duty every day, and in doing each duty faithfully. 

President Roosevelt tells a good story to urge 
duty and emphasize his oft-repeated declarations 
that opportunities are often overlooked. 

“I remember down in the village where I lived 
there was a decent but dreamy young fellow, a little 
apt to spend his time thinking how well he could have 
led his life under other conditions. His mother was 
a hard-working woman. One day he was reading in 
the paper an account of a fire in New York and the 
heroic deeds of a fireman in rescuing people from the 
burning building. His mother was busy around the 
room. Soon he put down the paper and said, with 
a sigh, ‘Oh, how I would like to rescue somebody 
from a burning building! ’ 

“ His mother answered, ‘ Well, I ’ll tell you. 
This building is not on fire, but if you will get in the 
kindling wood, I ’ll be obliged to you.’ ” 

There is a good moral lesson in that for all 
salesmen. 

The way to be a good salesman is to be a good 
neighbor to your customers , then a good neighbor to 
your fellow-salesmen in your own establishment , and 
to act toward your firm so that you become the kind 
of man they are glad to have work for them, or for 
whom they are glad to work. The business life of 
the employer and that of the employee should go 
[ 179 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

hand in hand, supporting one another. Make your 
firm feel glad to have you in their business family; 
feel that you are a good man to do business for 
them, and a good man for them to do business with. 
That’s what the Right Kind of Salesman does. His 
creed for all day, and every day in the year except 
Sunday, is: 

“ I believe in the goods I am selling, in the firm 
I am working for, and in my ability to get results. 

“I believe that honest goods can be sold to 
honest men by honest methods. 

“ I believe in working, not waiting; in laughing, 
not weeping; in boosting, not knocking; and in the 
pleasure of selling goods. 

“I believe that a man gets what he goes after; 
that one order to-day is worth two orders to-morrow; 
and that no man is down and out until he has lost 
faith in himself. 

“I believe in to-day and in the work I am 
doing; in to-morrow when it comes, and in the 
work I hope to do; and in the sure reward which 
the future holds. 

“I believe in courtesy, in generosity, in good 
cheer, in kindness, in friendship, and in honest com¬ 
petition. 

“ I believe there is an order somewhere for every 
man ready to take one. I believe I am ready right 
now.” 


[ 180 ] 


The Mind as a Magnet 


CHAPTER XIII 

THE MIND AS A MAGNET 

He who adopts no high standards 
is the only one who never jails. 

H ALF the pleasure in making a big success con¬ 
sists in knowing just how it has been accom¬ 
plished — in being able to say, “ I used this or that 
chance to good advantage”; “I should have failed 
if I had not known just how and when to apply this 
faculty or that talent, as the case required. How 
glad I am that I understand myself and my work, 
and can use what accomplishments I have intelli¬ 
gently!” 

But a good many men lose half the pleasure 
of their success. All they know is that they have 
worked hard and done their best, and, “as luck 
would have it,” everything has prospered. They 
are satisfied with the material results, so that it 
does not occur to them to find out specifically to 
what powers within themselves these results can 
be attributed. 

If you were to ask them by what steps they had 
developed into “geniuses,” they would have to an¬ 
swer, like Topsy, that they “jest growed.” Or they 
perhaps would privately agree with you, if you called 
them “born salesmen.” It would be more satis- 
[ 181 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

fying to know just what qualities, alleged to have 
been born in a man, operate in assuring the success 
of everything he undertakes. 

Any salesman who seriously hopes to improve 
his work must sometimes weigh very carefully the 
mental qualifications that tend to make him either a 
success or a failure. If he is at all thoughtful, he 
attaches more importance to his progress than he 
does to the weighing of external conditions, such as 
labor troubles, a shortage in crops, rumors of war, 
etc. He knows that the laws that govern the mind’s 
action have a more direct bearing on the results of 
his work as a salesman than foreign complications 
and the stringency in trade conditions described as 
“hard times.” 

Practical psychology is a mighty motive power 
in business-getting, and is receiving marked atten¬ 
tion on the part of thinking men in various walks of 
business life. 

Some people speak of the “soul power” which 
gives its possessor some measure of control over 
others. We hear of ministers and missionary work¬ 
ers who are practically masters of whole commu¬ 
nities. Sometimes they are opposed and even per¬ 
secuted when they begin their work, but end by 
commanding the docile obedience of the persons who 
at the start made trouble. Other people describe 
the same quality as “ psychic force.” The impor- 
[ 182 ] 


The Mind as a Magnet 

tant thing is not so much the name given to such an 
agency as the fact that it enables a man to make 
others see and accept his point of view as their own. 
The vital question is, whether or not it can be used 
by salesmen as a means for increasing the volume 
of their orders. 

Some salesmen have demonstrated that this can 
be done. They seldom hear a refusal. Customers 
who are prejudiced and obdurate forget their nat¬ 
ural combativeness when a salesman of the type we 
are describing appears. He gets their order, some¬ 
times without any argument at all, and almost 
always without any difficulty or waste of time. It 
seems natural that all people should agree with him, 
accept the ideas he advances, and do very nearly 
what he wants them to do. 

Either consciously or unconsciously, he is 
exercising what has been variously described as 
“soul power,” “psychic force,” and “personal mag¬ 
netism.” 

There is no question that the power of attraction 
which gives one man ascendency over others can be 
cultivated by any one who is sufficiently persistent 
and painstaking in the effort. Psychologists have 
not given us any formula for developing this quality. 
Any one who is interested, however, can suggest 
ways and means for himself, which will help toward 
the desired end. 


[ 183 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The first step toward accomplishment in this 
direction is a careful study of the successful men 
who are described as “born salesmen,” and who get 
their results by exercising this mental force. It will 
be found that all men possessed of personal magnetism 
are very much in earnest. Their intense earnestness 
is magnetic. Their minds are filled with one con¬ 
trolling idea—success in whatever undertaking they 
have in hand. 

Their earnestness cannot fail to have its effect 
on every prospective customer with whom they come 
in contact. Besides its direct effect on the man ad¬ 
dressed, the quality of earnestness in the salesman 
has also an immediate effect upon himself, in in¬ 
creasing his powers of reasoning and self-expression. 
By stimulating these powers, and through their 
agency, it also has an indirect effect upon the cus¬ 
tomer. 

Among people who live much alone, and whose 
labor exercises their muscles and not their brains, a 
common and significant phenomenon is observed. 
We are all familiar with cases where an ignorant, 
stolid fellow, ordinarily incapable of expressing him¬ 
self in speech very well, has suddenly found himself 
gifted with eloquence at some emotional crisis in 
his life — eloquence not the less splendid and power¬ 
ful for grammatical inaccuracies. 

When this happens, the mind of the speaker 
[ 184 ] 


The Mind as a Magnet 

has swept aside by the very force of earnestness the 
limitations which hampered it in ordinary inter¬ 
course. The same principle accounts for a man’s 
ability to improvise means of escape from great and 
sudden danger, which would have been entirely 
beyond his ingenuity at other times. 

The second step toward gaining the end in view 
is for the salesman to put himself as far as possible in 
entire harmony with all the conditions under which 
he works. To do this, his relations with his house 
should be candid and agreeable; there should be no 
rankling remembrances of differences which he may 
have had with the manager or others in the house. 
He should have absolute faith in the product he is 
selling; he should feel in entire sympathy with every 
prospective customer with whom he talks. 

This last is a most important matter. Some 
salesmen seem to think that it is sufficient if they 
preserve the outward forms of courtesy and pa¬ 
tience and consideration in dealing with a trying 
customer. 

Perhaps the customer’s objections are ridicu¬ 
lous because of his ignorance, and prejudiced because 
of his narrow-mindedness. It is necessary to get 
down to first principles and improve upon his edu¬ 
cation before he can form any conception of the 
value of what is offered him. The salesman who is 
not genuinely in earnest will hate this slow and 
[ 185 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

tedious process. He will talk in the kindliest possible 
manner to his customer, of course, but mentally he 
will be calling the man a fool, and wondering how 
such an antiquated specimen managed to survive 
the flood. The customer, of course, hears what the 
salesman says, and does not know what the sales¬ 
man is thinking. Still, he is very likely to be affected 
by the negative thoughts in the salesman’s mind. 
If he gives his order at all, it is because he has either 
been beaten in argument or made to feel ashamed 
of his own conservatism. It is certain that he has 
not been influenced by the power of attraction. 

The salesman who was really in earnest would 
undertake the same task without any mental reser¬ 
vation. This at least would leave his mind free to 
devise ways and means by which his prospects might 
be enlightened. He would have a quicker insight 
into the circumstances that govern the case. A 
mutual understanding and appreciation would be 
established, such as exist when two persons are said 
to be en rapport — a very necessary condition be¬ 
fore one mind can exercise any attraction over 
another. 

No one should confuse the mental action de¬ 
scribed here with hypnotism. It is not recom¬ 
mended to make an attack on the will power of a 
customer, for that is neither fair play nor practical 
business. One can, however, develop a power to 
[ 186 ] 


The Mind as a Magnet 

arouse the interest and good will of others, so that 
they will sometimes do voluntarily what a hypnotist 
seeks to make them do involuntarily. Such power, 
when acquired, assures some measure of success at 
least. 


[ 187 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER XIV 


SPECIALIZING EFFORTS 


Is your mind on the real game of sales¬ 
manship, or on a dozen outside ones? 

HIS is the age of the specialist. In the world of 



Jl materia medica the general practitioner is all 
right in his place; but when you are suffering with 
some specific ailment that requires a careful diagno¬ 
sis and more careful treatment, if you value your 
life, a specialist is called in for consultation. 

If you were obliged to engage the services of a 
lawyer on a difficult case, you would employ a law¬ 
yer who had a reputation for being particularly 
skilful in the very line in which your case is classed. 
The merchant does not long patronize a salesman 
whose energy is wavering and whose mind is set on 
anything and everything but the thing he has to sell. 
Singleness of purpose is one of the predominating 
features of successful salesmanship , just as it is in 
any other profession. 

Some years ago a city clergyman of inquiring 
mind sent a number of postal-card inquiries to non¬ 
church-going men in the neighborhood in which his 
church was situated, asking why so few business 
men attended church. He received many interest¬ 
ing replies, but the one that opened his eyes and set 


[ 188 ] 


Specializing Efforts 

him to thinking hard was from a travelling man. It 
ran something like this: 

“ The doctor practises medicine; the lawyer 
practises law; a politician talks politics, and the 
business man talks his business; but the average 
modern clergyman of the so-called new school talks 
everything and preaches everything but the Gospel, 
the thing he was ordained to preach. Business men, 
or any other class of men, except, perhaps, Beau 
Brummells, do not care to go to church and listen 
to talks about the boys’ brigade, the girls’ cooking 
school, the ladies’ sewing society, a treatise on the 
latest novel, nor side talks on current events of the 
day.” 

The salesman who wanders about in his profes¬ 
sion, like the Mississippi River seeking a straight 
course but not finding it, is not unlike the minister 
portrayed by our friend the travelling man. 

If you are selling shoes, talk shoes; dry goods, 
talk dry goods; clothing, talk clothing. Keep your 
mind on the one important thing. 

Your customers do not care to discuss with you 
the candidacy of the next President of the United 
States; whether your baby has a new tooth or a 
dozen, your wife’s disposition, nor the disposition of 
your neighbors. Neither are they interested in your 
competitors from your point of view. Their whole 
mind is centred, so far as you are concerned, on 
[ 189 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

what you can do for them with your goods, not the 
other fellow’s. 

Concentration — putting your real thought in 
your real work; that is it. 

You don’t need to waste time reading this chap¬ 
ter if you are morally certain that the best that is in 
you is being used every hour, and used to give your 
customers, your house, and yourself the best chance 
possible,— maximum results with minimum waste; 
and that applies to everything pertaining to your 
work — energy, time, expense, territory, and all. 

Among the thousands of salesmen there may be 
a few that play the game of salesmanship as a good 
checker-player plays the game of checkers. The 
few in the thousands do not need to think about 
the importance of concentration, but a very great 
majority of salesmen do need to realize what oneness 
of purpose might mean to them. 

Every salesman wants something that he has 
not got. “His wish-bone may be where his back¬ 
bone ought to be,” but he wishes just as if Nature 
had made him right. 

There is not a single salesman that is not plan¬ 
ning in a more or less aimless way to do something, 
to get somewhere in life’s journey, to be something 
worthy of the recognition of his superiors; and there 
is really not one that could not have his heart’s 
desire, or at least succeed in a fair measure, if he 
[190J 


Specializing Efforts 

would wear that wish-bone in the place for which it 
was originally intended. Keeping his mind on the 
essential things in salesmanship, and off other things, 
will help wonderfully his desire to get, do, and be 
something more than a wayfarer on the highway of 
success. 

Have you ever seen two salesmen with relatively 
equal chances — a good salesman and a bad sales¬ 
man ? 

The bad salesman makes excuses for himself at 
the end of every trip, all through the year, and at 
the end takes a cut in his salary or looks for another 
position. The good salesman plans his year's work 
from the beginning. Carefully he studies his terri¬ 
tory, making his work fit his set plan; watches every 
move of his competitors; takes every vantage-point 
smilingly, easily, but fairly, and wins in the end 
because his mind has been on his business. 

One of the most important things to the average 
salesman in specializing his efforts is to confine his 
work to as limited a territory as possible, insuring 
profitable returns for energy expended. Seven out 
of ten salesmen travelling with trunks and represent¬ 
ing wholesale concerns, cover from 33J to 50 per cent 
more territory than is necessary to produce the best 
results to be obtained. Few, apparently, recognize 
the fact that concentration of energy on a limited 
number of accounts produces in the end much more 
[191] 


Men Who Sell Things 

satisfactory business than the same results reaped 
from a broader field. A little soil well tilled is in¬ 
finitely better than a large acreage half raked over. 

Your territory is an asset of your house just as 
much as its surplus capital, stock, or book accounts. 
The worth of your territory as an asset is gauged 
entirely by the manner in which it is gone over. This 
does not apply to all lines in the manufacturing 
world, but it is invariably the case with jobbing 
houses or wholesalers in any line. 

The too infrequent calling upon customers 
leaves a loophole for your trade to escape and scat¬ 
ter its accounts among a large number of houses; 
but this escape could not be possible if you would 
visit your customers oftener. Every time you give 
your competitors a chance to wean away your cus¬ 
tomers’ accounts and likewise their confidence, you 
render your trade of an uncertain quantity as well 
as quality. 

“But,” argues the salesman who has not tried 
this plan, “how can I keep my road work up and 
show good sales every day, if I visit my trade oftener 
than their demand for goods requires ? ” 

The answer is: The nature of your accounts and 
the results at the end of the year, not at the end of the 
day, is the determining factor in your ultimate suc¬ 
cess. 

By keeping in the closest possible touch with 
[ 192 ] 


Specializing Efforts 

your trade you are eventually enabled to establish a 
custom that you can call your own, and your work is 
accomplished with the minimum amount of effort and 
expense. But that is not all. Confidence in busi¬ 
ness is the guiding-star of all satisfactory operation. 
It is secured mainly by a close relationship between 
buyer and seller. 

Did it ever occur to you how thoroughly you can 
aid in promoting the interests of your customers, as 
well as your own, when you have once obtained their 
confidence to the fullest degree, and that the best 
possible thing under any circumstances for them is 
to keep their purchasing eggs as much in one basket 
as possible, provided the basket is the right one ? 

Many a small town dealer has allowed his ship 
of commerce to ground on the shoals of bank¬ 
ruptcy, solely because he purchased from too many 
houses and could not watch his payments, besides 
getting more goods on hand than his limited output 
demanded. All this the clever salesman with single¬ 
ness of purpose can avert. 

I have witnessed the plan of travelling men on 
limited territories carried out to an eminently suc¬ 
cessful conclusion in many cases where it was tried. 
A few years ago my house had but one man cover¬ 
ing the State adjoining the one on the east of that 
in which we were situated — territory that was 
generally conceded to be in “the enemy’s country.” 

[193] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Right here I want to emphasize that that “enemy’s 
country” cry is pretty much a time-worn, punctured 
theory in the minds of the energetic salesman and the 
progressive and aggressive house. These assume — 
and correctly so — that the logical market for any 
territory, irrespective of distance or position, is the 
one that can offer the best inducements to draw the 
patronage of that territory. 

Well, Mr. Salesman of the “ enemy’s country” 
argued that there was not enough business for a 
second salesman in his State. He protested against 
the intrusion with a fervor that would easily have 
made him top man on the annual sales sheet had this 
new-found energy been directed on sales-making on 
his own account in place of arguing against it on the 
other fellow’s. He stoutly maintained that if a 
division of his territory occurred he could not con¬ 
duct a profitable business on the section allotted 
him; that the experiment was bound to be a failure; 
that the house would regret it, and in the end he 
would be obliged to take back that portion of his 
territory given to a new man, and have the up-hill 
work of regaining the lost prestige that was certain 
to result from the change. 

We were determined to try the experiment, how¬ 
ever, and the following year the State was split in 
halves, the eastern section going to a new man and 
the western to our old traveller. 

[ 194 ] 


Specializing Efforts 

Five years later the new man’s sales amounted 
to one hundred thousand dollars a year, against 
eighty thousand of our former salesman, and yet 
the latter showed an increase over his previous work 
and was gaining every year. 

Later, precisely the same thing was repeated in 
two or three other States, with the same results. 

In a still more notable instance we had a man 
travelling on a territory situated far distant from the 
house. His annual sales amounted to about one 
hundred and forty thousand dollars, for the greater 
part of which he received credit on house sales. 

The sales manager endeavored to point out to 
him the superior advantages of his territory, and the 
results to be obtained by making two trips each sea¬ 
son in place of one, as was his custom. Being of that 
“ divine rights ” class of men, he was a trifle touchy 
on the subject of any interference from the house as 
to the regular routine of his work as he thought it 
should be conducted. The matter was urged upon 
him until it got on his nerves, and he became exceed¬ 
ingly uncomfortable, so much so that one day he 
rushed into the office of the president and flaunted his 
resignation before him in a tragic manner, loudly pro¬ 
testing against interference with his personal rights. 
Little did he realize that the man who always thinks 
of his rights is the first to forget that they involve 
an equal number of responsibilities. 

[ 195 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

The reverse of what he expected from his melo¬ 
dramatic effort happened. His resignation was 
accepted promptly, and just as promptly there com¬ 
menced a rehabilitation of his former territory. It 
was divided into three sections and given to three 
young men in the house anxious to get on the road, 
and who were charged to the brim with enthusiasm 
and with ideas instilled into them from headquarters. 
At the end of the first year their sales in the aggregate 
amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
Three distinct territories had been established, each 
covered by a man with fine, growing prospects, 
and each man working like a Trojan in a spirit 
of friendly rivalry, the outcome of which could 
only mean a largely increased business for all con¬ 
cerned. 

It is a great thing for a salesman to realize that 
honest, intelligent effort will bring its reward much 
more effectually and satisfactorily on a territory that 
does not encumber him with dead weight on ac¬ 
count of its size. Clear your ship for action, and 
see to it that the barnacles of shortsightedness are 
cleaned from its bottom. 

At the very period in which this chapter was 
under consideration it was my privilege to form the 
acquaintance of a gentleman whom I engaged on a 
commission to assist the committee of which I had 
the honor to be chairman, in the great public-spirited 
[ 196 ] 


Specializing Efforts 

movement looking to the commercial and physical 
advancement of a Greater Chicago. 

In the special work upon which we were en¬ 
gaged the services of my new-found acquaintance 
proved to be invaluable, notwithstanding we were 
paying him a commission that netted him on an 
average more than four hundred dollars per month. 
From boyhood his business career had been decid¬ 
edly checkered, embracing the promotion of all 
manner of enterprises, from political campaigns, 
mining stocks, and expositions, to the management 
of theatrical companies, and even appearances be¬ 
fore the footlights himself as an understudy when 
occasion demanded. 

As a man he was prepossessing in appearance, 
of pleasing personality, honest, and clean-cut. As 
a salesman he possessed marked ability and adapta¬ 
bility. He had the best approach and the finest 
tact, put up the best argument, and closed a deal at 
the psychological moment, in the neatest manner I 
have ever witnessed. 

In relating to me his experiences one day he said: 
“I began life without any chance for an education. 
There was no one to tell me how to begin or what to 
do to make the most of myself. I know that I am 
fitted for something better than the work I am doing. 
I know that I have real ability in my way, but no one 
has ever told me how to use it to the best permanent 
[ 197 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

advantage. I ’m tired of this changing from one 
thing to another, even though I manage to derive an 
income better than the average of men engaged in the 
work of selling things.” 

He wound up by adding: “ Could n’t your firm 
give me permanent employment on the road ? I 
know I could sell your goods successfully. I have 
never seen anything that I could n’t sell. If you 
could make room for me I would commence at three 
thousand a year and take my chances on advance¬ 
ment with something permanent in view.” 

That is the story of a man who made one hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars , made it honestly , and lost it 
because of the lack of such discipline as would have 
taught him to focus his mind on some set plan in his 
life's work . 

It is the story of a man eminently talented, and 
who might have managed a prosperous enterprise 
of his own, or at least earned a big salary in an 
executive position or at the head of a large sales 
organization but for the fact that he lacked single¬ 
ness of purpose, oneness in business aspirations, 
concentration, or whatever you choose to call it 
that enables a man to stick to a thing until he 
gets there. 

There is another feature in specializing efforts 
in sales-making that enables the salesman to make 
a ten-strike, and that is in guiding his customers in 
r i98] 


Specializing Efforts 

the matter of selection. In order to do that suc¬ 
cessfully, a careful study must be made of general 
conditions surrounding the line which he is selling, 
as well as the requirements of those to whom he 
wishes to sell. 

For instance, some salesmen selling line goods 
seem to feel that if general conditions are not up 
to par, there is no chance for immediate sales. 
Nothing is so far from the facts. This is particu¬ 
larly demonstrated on advance trips where no goods 
are in immediate demand, and where desire must 
be created out of whole cloth. I have known bright 
salesmen to start out with a general line represent¬ 
ing their business, only to find a decided apathy on 
the part of buyers toward their proposition as a 
whole at that particular time. Did they lie down 
in despair and write the house that business was 
dull, it was too early, some one else had been out 
before them, and a host of other lame excuses ? 

No! They sharpened their wits, and likewise 
their selling-talk, took a careful survey of things, and 
then selected a particularly good value or two in some 
specific pattern or style from their general line; then 
they pinned their selling-talk down to that until they 
aroused interest, created desire, and captured resolve, 
and at the end of the trip they were more than satis¬ 
fied with results in the aggregate. 

In our line I have known it to be so dull during 
[ 199 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

a “filling-in” season that there was absolutely no 
desire on the part of the trade for anything in par¬ 
ticular, when some bright salesman in the line-up 
would single out some one thing that had not been 
especially strong, from among the hundreds in the 
various departments, and specialize his efforts on 
that article in every town on the trip, and thus roll 
up figures on the monthly sales sheet that were even 
larger than might have been the case in taking 
orders more widely distributed under more prom¬ 
ising circumstances. The customers, too, were 
satisfied, because a new idea had been advanced, 
and they had something new to talk about to their 
trade. 

After all, the average dealer in the rank-and-file 
town takes his selling-talk pretty much from his 
favorite salesman. Did you ever think of that ? 

Salesmanship is a profession, but it is also a 
game. Every salesman must play it either poorly or 
well, and always with the same opponent in the 
game — Time. 

Your opponent waits for nothing — relentlessly 
he watches the game progress. He clutches his 
scythe, ready to cut you down. All around you and 
your adversary Time, there is Success. If your mind 
is distracted from your work, Time gains a vantage- 
point. 

Thousands of salesmen are saying every day, 
[ 200 ] 


Specializing Efforts 

“ If I had my life to live over again I would do thus 
and so/* 

The most profitless occupation in the world is 
to sit idly thinking of what you would do if you 
had another chance. Forget what is behind. Press 
forward to the future, which is every man's, to do 
with as he will! 

The game will last as long as you do. Thinking 
of the foolish plays you have made will not help you 
to win, unless the experience has taught you how to 
avoid them and to concentrate your mind on better 
ones, brushing aside all obstacles. Young salesmen 
especially need to think much about singleness of 
purpose, for their temptations are on every hand. 

Many young salesmen, and old ones, too, for 
that matter, act like men lost in the woods, trying 
to get out without the aid of a compass. They 
turn to the right and to the left, then go round in a 
circle, stumbling over logs and entangled under¬ 
brush, finally giving up in despair. The road be¬ 
fore every salesman is perfectly clear: walk straight 
ahead to the end of it, and you will come out into 
the clearing. 

Suppose you were to engage a man to bore a 
well for you. What would you think of him if he 
bored a few inches here and a few inches there, and 
kept on boring down just a little way all over a ten- 
acre field, never going deep enough to strike water? 

[ 201 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

You would think he ought to have a guardian ap¬ 
pointed over him. Well, that is exactly what a 
great many salesmen are doing. Just boring down 
through the subsoil, never striking bed-rock and 
through and beneath it the sparkling w r ater Success. 

Try one way, but be sure it’s a good way, and 
keep at it, Brother Salesman, until you strike the 
bed-rock of efficient salesmanship. 

Don’t let your grim old opponent, Father Time, 
get there ahead of you and block up the way with 
his impenetrable chain of lost opportunities. 


[ 202 ] 


Letters to the Trade 


CHAPTER XV 

LETTERS TO THE TRADE 

The next best thing to interviewing a good cus¬ 
tomer is to write him a 'personal letter occasionally. 

\7'OU cannot personally shake hands and jolly up 
your customers every few days; so the next 
best thing is to write them personal letters, just as 
you would talk to them if you were to meet them on 
the street or in their places of business. Now, is n’t 
that so ? 

Such letters bring new business and hold oM 
customers. 

Naturally, the more personal talks you can have 
with your customers , the better; but in between 
trips write them a heart-to-heart letter now and then , 
just to make them feel that you are keeping them 
in mind. It will show that you have a strong per¬ 
sonal interest in them, and the results, if watched, 
will both please and surprise you. Make your let¬ 
ters talk to your customers. Make them believe 
in your letters just as you want them to believe 
in you. 

Galileo taught that the earth moves around 
the sun, but was compelled by the Inquisition to 
renounce the theory. Perhaps you feel a little that 
way about what your customers might think of your 
[ 203 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

letters; that is because you have not discovered the 
right way to go about it. 

Letter-writing, like advertising, is the written 
method of salesmanship. You can make bad sales¬ 
manship of it, the same as of personal interviews, if 
you do not understand and rightly apply the science. 

What would you think of a kid-gloved salesman 
who approached his customers in the manner that he 
would approach his hostess at an afternoon recep¬ 
tion ? Well, that is precisely the way in which more 
than two-thirds of the business letter-writing is done. 
Such letters often begin with — 

“ I beg to acknowledge yours of-” 

“ Replying to your esteemed favor of even date, 

permit me to say-” 

“Your letter of-is at hand and contents 

carefully noted.” 

And they often end with — 

“ I beg to remain-” 

“I am yours- 

These shop-worn types of the customary style 
should have been relegated to the waste-basket a 
decade ago. Begin your letters in an easy, natural, 
conversational way. Have something to write about, 
and think hard about the best way to write it to 
attract the sympathy of your customer to your 
proposition. 

Be original in your style. Don’t write as a 
[ 204 ] 



Letters to the Trade 

dozen other salesmen that cover your territory are 
in the habit of doing, in a pointless, stereotyped 
fashion. Think about your customer; think about 
what you are going to write, and then write it in a 
manner that you feel certain will please and interest 
him. 

If you are in the habit of scratching off any old 
thing the quickest and easiest way, stop to figure 
out the effect such letters are going to have, if any. 
Try to realize the great value that it is possible to 
secure with a little care and study in presenting your 
subject. 

Some salesmen go on the plan that letter-writing 
is of no avail in helping to increase their sales any¬ 
way, and as it is laborious, they let it alone. Igno¬ 
rance or mental laziness is the foundation of such 
ideas, aided, perhaps, by a desire to enjoy a game of 
billiards, or an idle chat with the clerk when the last 
customer has been called upon and packing is fin¬ 
ished. Recreation is necessary and proper, but the 
salesman in any line who hopes to get on in the 
world will play only when the last tap of work is 
finished at the close of each day. 

A decade ago commercial letter-writing was 
deprecated by most business houses as a medium to 
attract and hold trade. Its use was mainly to cover 
immediate necessity that could not be adjusted by 
personal interview. All that has changed with the 
[ 205 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

changing times, and to-day every business institution 
of any note has a correspondence department in 
charge of a high-salaried head, who is especially 
versed in the art of writing the kind of letters calcu¬ 
lated to aid in strengthening its connection with its 
customers, and to assist its sales force in building 
new business. 

It is as necessary to hold as to build. The sales¬ 
man who fails to get in touch with the head of the 
correspondence of his house and seek his aid at 
times is a poor prop for any house to lean upon. 

The most efficient salesman values the backing 
the house can give him through this department, 
realizing that his position with his trade is mainly 
one of aggression, and at times is apt to be mis¬ 
construed, no matter how securely he may be in¬ 
trenched in the confidence of his customers. 

A general promotion letter now and then to 
his trade, bearing the authority of his house, stamps 
the salesman’s efforts, methods, and assertions with 
added power of persuasion. 

While a sincere letter of appreciation of favors 
received, eliminating entirely any flavor of bid for 
business, at the end of each season, promotes a 
feeling of good will conducive to the interests of all 
concerned, and effectually paves the way for stronger 
and better trade relations. 

Although salesmen of more than ordinary suc- 
[ 206 ] 


Letters to the Trade 


cess are to be found in many houses, who put their 
hands up in a know-it-all, self-satisfied sort of way, 
deprecating support of this kind as unnecessary, if 
not actually interfering with what they term “their 
interests,” yet he is a wise salesman who encour¬ 
ages it and seeks every opportunity to make free 
use of it. 

The best managed house in the world makes 
mistakes at times, and mistakes make disgruntled 
customers. Something goes wrong in the billing 
department; a piece of goods fails to come up to 
par; a certain pattern, through the fault of no 
one, does not turn out exactly as represented; a cus¬ 
tomer in the house is not given the attention he 
thinks he should receive; in fact, a dozen things 
of similar nature are liable to occur in the best regu¬ 
lated establishments, which tend to disquiet this or 
that customer for the time being. Do what you 
can to straighten out the kinks, and make sure that 
there remains no cause of complaint in which your 
customer may find a reasonable pretext for giving 
business to a competitor that otherwise might have 
gone to you. Tell the correspondence man about 
it; that’s what he is there for. 

It’s your business to sell goods, and you are 
supposed to know your business. You’d get mad if 
some one told you you didn’t know it, would n’t you ? 
Well, then, leave the matter of “fixing” the custom- 
[ 207 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

ers in the hands of the man whose business it is to 
look after that part of the work. Put the same 
degree of confidence in him that you demand and 
expect to receive yourself, and see how quickly and 
nicely all these things will be adjusted. 

“But,” says Mr. Salesman of inquiring mind, 
“ if I tell my troubles to the house I may get a letter 
telling me that the house has troubles of its own, 
and that I am paid to fix these things for myself.” 

Do all you can for yourself in fixing the business 
of your house, no matter how you may be called upon, 
but when all is said and done to the best of your 
ability, seek help from headquarters. If your house 
has a manager that would send you that kind of a 
reply, and you do not get the sort of help you require, 
the best thing for that house is to discharge him and 
get a manager who understands that a fine piece of 
machinery needs oiling to make it run without fric¬ 
tion. 

Not only energy is needed in salesmanship, but 
method, system, and a readiness to adapt oneself 
to the conditions required to accomplish results. 
There are many salesmen eager to sell a bill of goods, 
but careless about other things pertaining to the 
fulfilment of the contract to the minutest detail. 
There are many who seem to think that if they 
have made a customer, it is immaterial whether 
they keep him or not. 


[ 208 ] 


Letters to the Trade 

The business letter of the average salesman is 
of a very low standard — has little if any pulling 
power. It is meaningless, because it contains noth¬ 
ing of personal interest to the recipient. If you 
write every customer in exactly the same way and 
as you have been writing all your life, it is no wonder 
that you do not believe in letter-writing. 

He who rests at the foot of the mountain knows 
of the glories of yonder peak only from other travel¬ 
lers who have completed the arduous journey. 

There is a certain style in drawing up a letter 
on any question so as to make it produce desired 
results. The key to the mastery of this style is of 
so great value as to make it worth months of effort 
and hundreds of dollars to any salesman to discover 
it. It is not undiscoverable, by any means. 

To begin with, don't put too much of yourself 
into your letters . The best customer on your calen¬ 
dar is not interested overmuch in you. The thing 
that concerns him is how you can help his situation. 
Don’t fool yourself into believing that you have him 
solidly bound to you by close ties of friendship. In¬ 
timate acquaintance is worth much, to be sure, but 
your own brother will patronize you in a business 
way only so long as you can make it worth his while 
from a dollar-and-cent standpoint. That is because 
business is business. Friendship is another matter. 
It is useful only as a path-opener in business. It 
[ 209 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

will keep the opening clear only as long as it con¬ 
duces to your customer’s commercial prosperity. 

But to return. In letter-writing keep yourself 
in the background, put your customer's interests to 
the fore , and avoid construction of the machine-like, 
ready-made order. Introduce your subject in a 
graceful, natural, and friendly style; then, carefully 
avoiding meaningless sentences, proceed into the 
real pith of your proposition, making your points 
tell one on another, briefly, vividly, connectedly, 
down to the leave-taking, which should be genuinely 
polite, but withal natural and pleasant, as you would 
say good-bye to a friend or acquaintance about to 
depart on a short journey. 

You would n’t greet an old acquaintance on the 
street with, “Excuse me for taking this liberty in 
saying how do you do,” or “The favor of your pres¬ 
ence here on the street with me is heartily appreci¬ 
ated, I assure you.” And you would n’t leave him 
with, “ I hope you will remember me. Good-bye,” 
or, “ I hope I have pleased you in this meeting, and 
that you will offer me further opportunity for con¬ 
tinued acquaintance.” 

Sounds funny, does n’t it ? 

Well, that’s the way it sounds when you write 
letters that way. If you would n’t talk that way to 
your friends, why do you write in that style ? Think 
it over. 


[ 210 ] 


Letters to the Trade 


You don’t do it? Oh, yes, you do! And you 
are not alone in it either. 

Bring your customer as close to you in a letter 
as you would in a personal talk, if he were sitting 
at your elbow in the sample-room or talking to you 
at his own desk. 

Men of limited schooling have found an easy 
method of increasing their vocabulary in reading 
extensively and studiously from the lives of great 
men, and other works of educational interest. 
In precisely the same way the salesman may in¬ 
crease his knowledge of correct letter-writing by 
making a careful study of the style adopted by men 
who are specialists in the art of business-letter 
writing. 

Take pains with your letters. When one is 
finished in which you wish your powers of persua¬ 
sion to have full swing, read it over carefully; 
study the weak points, and try again. Keep on 
trying until you hit upon a style that you feel cer¬ 
tain will have the desired effect. 

I have known men who, from long practice, 
were skilled in the art of constructing powerful 
business-getting letters, to ponder for hours and 
destroy many copies in an effort at shaping up just 
what they wanted for a strong letter with which to 
fit a specific purpose. 

The power of business-letter writing as a silent 

[ 211 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

factor in salesmanship is second only to the oral 
method. 

To any salesman who will intelligently explore 
the field there awaits a golden harvest. Begin now 
Tvhile the subject is fresh in your mind. In place 
of using the conventional advance cards, that out¬ 
lived their usefulness before their invention, invest 
a dollar or two occasionally in the services of a pub¬ 
lic stenographer, and keep your customers in touch 
with you by heart-to-heart, elbow-to-elbow business¬ 
getting and business-holding letters. 

It will please and surprise you amazingly to see 
how quickly and effectually your work will take on 
new life. All that is necessary to germinate it is a 
little time employed from among the many idle 
hours on board the train or about hotel lobbies, 
coupled with the slight investment of a few cents, 
and a larger one of sense. 


[ 212 ] 


Getting the Price 


CHAPTER XVI 

GETTING THE PRICE 

The highest delights are often found by turning 
the back on inviting by-paths and facing cold duty. 

I T is hard to redeem the salesman who is under 
the narcotic of price-cutting. 

The habit of making your own prices on your 
employer’s goods is a moral kink in your selling 
education, a holdback on your advancement in the 
profession, and a sink-hole for the profits of your 
house; and if you cannot break yourself of it, better 
far that you quit salesmanship and become an auc¬ 
tioneer; then you can have unlimited latitude to 
indulge in the pastime of tobogganing on a sliding 
scale of price-making where no harm can be done. 

The most inexcusable fault in any salesman is 
the lack of ability to get the price. 

If you will always keep in mind the principle of 
not allowing your customers to make your price , you 
will find how easy it is to make sales at the prices 
with which your goods are marked. 

There are shrewd buyers everywhere who have 
learned that if they can put the price on the other 
man’s goods they are morally certain of getting the 
best end of the bargain. 

When a customer enters your sample-room and 
[ 213 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

informs you that your competitor has offered him 
the same article you have just shown him at a lower 
price than you named, you should at once settle it 
with yourself that you will be establishing a danger¬ 
ous precedent in falling into the hands of that cus¬ 
tomer, if this reported cut in price is met without 
careful investigation. And even then you should 
generally stand firm and refuse to meet this com¬ 
petitive attack. The salesman who sells the right 
goods to his customers in the right way has no need 
to do business at a loss on any article, or to allow his 
competitors or his customers to make his prices. 

It is a good thing to remember the old rule 
that a good buyer never calls attention to the fact of 
prices being higher in one place than another. If a 
higher price has actually been named than he could 
buy the same article for elsewhere, he quietly drops 
it, slips away to the store of the man who mdde the 
lower price, and places his order there. 

In nine cases out of ten, when a buyer questions 
your prices he is merely testing your nerve as a sales¬ 
man. If you should yield just once, and your house 
be lax enough to permit it, you are done for on price¬ 
getting with that buyer as long as you travel that 
territory. 

The weak-kneed salesman who is unacquainted 
with the mind of the average buyer imagines because 
he is not strong himself on his own goods and prices, 
[ 214 ] 


Getting the Price 

that the buyers on his territory will share his uncer¬ 
tainty. If they do share it, it is because of his re¬ 
flected weakness, and not on account of his values. 

All through the various phases of salesmanship, 
faith runs like a silver thread. If a salesman’s 
faith is weakened with dread and doubt, he must 
blame his failure on his lack of confidence, and not 
on his goods. 

When you start out with a new line of goods at 
the beginning of a season, and your faith is abundant, 
how easy it is for you to drive your points home and 
clinch your arguments with every article shown. 
No room for price-cutting then! 

Now, as a matter of fact, the prices of the goods 
in your house are pretty generally right. An off 
price now and then, even on a marked article, is per¬ 
fectly liable to occur, but it is nothing to be alarmed 
at. Your house could not remain in business and 
pay you the salary you are drawing, if it were 
always under the market on everything it had to sell. 

While you are looking with an eye to picking 
the easy sellers in your line, don’t forget that price 
in merchandising does not cut so much figure as it 
did ten years ago. The buyer’s argument then was 
price and quantity; now it is selection and quality. 
The merchant is out of date who goes about the 
market wearing that old price bugaboo around his 
neck. There is little room for doubt that his shelves 
[ 215 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

are filled with shop-worn “bargains,” in place of 
up-to-date merchandise. 

On a certain occasion a big and pompous dealer 
from the West came into our store, and in a loud 
voice said: 

“ I’m looking for the man who makes prices.” 

The sales manager was called, and explained to 
him that no one in the place was empowered with 
that privilege. “Our prices,” said he, “are the 
same to you as to others.” 

“ But,” answered the merchant, “ I have always 
heard it stated that you were high-priced.” 

“ You are willing to trust to your own knowledge 
of values, are you not ?” asked the manager. 

He said he was, and expressed a desire to go 
through the house. Stopping on one of the floors 
where he thought it would be a good place for the 
merchant to start in to buy, the manager launched 
into a brief, terse argument, in which he cut loose 
from cheapness,— emphasizing merit,— laying stress 
on inherent worth both of style and quality. 

That buyer placed an order for fifteen hundred 
dollars before he left, and came back for more 
goods each season afterwards, always acknowledg¬ 
ing that that argument on quality had been worth 
a great deal to him in his own business. 

I have known salesmen to be so weak on price 
that, when they discovered an article in the line that 
[ 216 ] 


Getting the Price 

was overvalued, from among hundreds of others of 
exceptional value, all they could do was to go about 
the place and hound everybody they came in con¬ 
tact with about it, as if the whole future of the house 
and themselves depended on immediate adjustment 
of the matter. Their argument was that if a cus¬ 
tomer should happen to run across it, it would 
prejudice him toward the entire line. Nice com¬ 
pliment to their customers’ knowledge of values, 
wasn’t it? 

For the edification of just such salesmen, let 
me emphasize right here that buyers do not turn 
down a house of standing because of a price or two 
being out of the way. Every buyer has certain houses 
on his staff that he likes to favor. Before going to 
market he makes a mental blue-print of the amount 
of goods he intends to purchase, and about how 
much he will leave with each house. In visiting the 
various places he is in the habit of frequenting, his 
chief attention is given to selection on style — not 
price. He picks out patterns in one house that he 
did not see in another, and vice versa. If, perchance, 
he actually discovers the same article in two places 
at different prices, and he has already purchased it 
at the higher price, he simply cancels his order 
for that one thing and places it with the other house. 
But on no account does he condemn the entire 
plant because of that experience. So there is no 
[ 217 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

need of fear that your trade is going to leave you on 
any such pretext. 

Enlargement of the heart is responsible for 
price-cutting on the part of some salesmen. They 
permit a buyer to work on their sympathies with 
stories of the quantity of goods he can use if the 
price is right. He pleads his case so eloquently and 
with such ardor that the salesman forgets that 
successful salesmanship depends upon his ability 
to lead his customers — not on following them. 
Leaders are finders; followers get but leavings. 

“Clouds are helped by winds to rise. Be not 
a cloud; strive to be the wind whose will the clouds 
obey.” 

The spirit of accommodation is all right in its 
place, but it amounts to an offence against your 
house when you take the liberty of displaying it at 
the firm’s expense. It is easy to be generous with 
other people’s resources, unless your character is 
free from kinks. Price-cutting is character weak¬ 
ness. Did you ever think of it in that light? 

What right have you to reduce the price of an¬ 
other’s goods purely of your own volition ? 

No more right than you have to go behind the 
cashier’s desk, put your hand in the money-drawer, 
and take out the same amount you lop off in a cut 
price and give to a customer. 

Sounds severe, does it not? It is the truth. 

[ 218 ] 


Getting the Price 

Truth hurts sometimes, but when it hurts most it 
does the most good. 

You are paid to sell goods at a profit. 

The Sheldon definition of salesmanship is the 
best I have ever heard — 

“Power to persuade people to purchase at a 
profit.” 

Not simply to purchase, but to purchase at a 
profit. 

Your salary is based upon a percentage of your 
sales, plus travelling expense. When you cut 
prices, this percentage does not fluctuate with 
your cuts. It goes on just the same whether you 
are steady on prices or not. The basis of profit 
to you remains the same. If your house fixes the 
percentage on the profits of your sales instead 
of the actual sales, that is a different proposition. 
That is the safest and surest remedy for price- 
cutting; it makes the fiddler dance to his own 
music. 

The house employing many salesmen without 
a profit-figuring department is like a steam boiler 
without a safety-valve. 

Strange as it may seem, salesmen who have 
enjoyed the widest liberty in the conduct of their 
firm’s affairs abroad, and whose basis for salary 
has been changed from net sales to profit on sales, 
decidedly prefer the latter method. It leaves no 
[ 219 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

gaps in the selling-fence through which the salesman 
is tempted to wander into by-paths. It is always 
easier to keep your mind on one object than on a 
dozen. When that object is the sale of goods at a 
profit, it is easier of accomplishment with the course 
positively defined. The man is yet undiscovered 
who can successfully watch all the attractions going 
on at once in a five-ring circus. 

If, however, your house is still operating on the 
old plan of percentage on sales, and there is no 
limit to your latitude (don’t put the coat on, now, 
unless it fits; this chapter is intended for that class 
of salesmen for whom instructions have but little 
restraining influence), stop for a moment to con¬ 
sider your house. It pays you your salary. It is 
the head of the business family of which you are a 
member. True, you could go elsewhere and secure 
a position — almost any one could. That is the 
meanest argument ;fou could use. The question is, 
Have you no filial business regard for the head of 
your business family? 

Why, of course! Down in the inner recesses of 
your sterner nature you know you have, only you 
have not stopped to think of it in that light. Show 
it, then, by quitting the price-cutting habit. 

You would not lift your hand against the 
safety and maintenance of your own father’s house¬ 
hold, would you ? Why do you do it, then, against 
[ 220 ] 


Getting the Price 

the home of your business family ? When you 
compare the two cases there is not much difference. 

You have some pride, have you not ? Well, 
then, if you don’t want to be known to the father 
and brothers of your business family as a weakling, 
constantly requiring care and watching, quit that 
habit of price-cutting. Start in to hold up your end 
in supporting that family, in place of being a drag 
on it. 

Every time that you take a liberty that you 
have no business to take, some one suffers for it. 
When you fail to do your part in keeping up the 
profits of your house, your brother salesmen have to 
carry the load you have imposed upon them by your 
lack of sense of obligation. 

The most justifiable kick any salesman ever 
makes is when another salesman in his house cuts 
the price, while he remains firm. If you want the 
privilege of being a “ special rights ” member of the 
family, you ought to be willing to pay for it. 

My first business venture was the establishment 
of a house that travelled ten men. Our capital was 
limited, and we could not afford to make many 
mistakes. But in our desire to get a foothold, we 
allowed our salesrfien a considerable degree of 
latitude the first two or three years. Finally we 
were obliged to call a halt. The cutting of prices 
was ruining our business. We took the men aside 
[221 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

one day and explained matters, asking their support 
in refusing to cut prices any longer. Our best men 
stopped the practice at once, but there were three or 
four weaklings on the staff, who thought the request 
was a joke, and to correct these it became necessary 
to make a positive rule that all salesmen cutting 
prices would be charged with the difference. 

The rule worked splendidly, and our sales in¬ 
creased. All but one man fell into line. He was 
the tail-ender on the force, and a little, nervous, 
over-anxious fellow, as methodical as an eight-day 
clock about everything except getting the price. 
That worried him. He had an enormous bump of 
conceit that prevented anything from penetrating 
to his gray matter that was not conceived by himself. 

Two days after the new rule went into effect he 
sent an order in with several cut prices. On the 
face of it, there was no earthly reason for his action, 
as the quantities were all small and the prices 
shaved just a little all down the line. These cuts 
amounted to eight dollars in all. We immediately 
authorized the cashier to debit his personal account 
with that amount and to deduct it from his next 
pay-check. 

When our star cutter received his check minus 
the eight dollars, he got very mad and came in from 
a near-by town to tell us so. As soon as he arrived 
we told him to save his breath; that we knew 
[ 222 ] 


Getting the Price 

what he had come in to tell us; that our profits were 
involved, not his, and we w T ould do the talking. 

In language that he managed to comprehend at 
last, he was informed that the rule would stand — 
the eight dollars that he had taken from us and 
donated to his customer would not be refunded; 
that we would add to it the amount of his railroad 
fare from the town he had run in from and back to 
the next one; that he would be docked for the time 
lost while in the house and en route; that it was 
costing him money every minute he remained; and 
if there was any doubt left in his mind that we meant 
business, and he still wanted to deliver himself of 
that kick he had brought in with him, that we would 
accept his resignation then and there and put a 
man in his place from among the dozen young 
fellows in the store who were waiting and anxious 
to fill it, and who would obey instructions. 

That settled it with him. He turned red in 
the face, a lump came up in his throat, he swallowed 
it along with his conceit and with whatever it was he 
had come in to tell us, reached for his hat, picked 
up his grip, set it down, and extended his hand, 
simply saying, “Thank you. I can get the price,” 
and was gone. We never had any more trouble 
with him, and he did not lose his trade either. 

Honestly made merchandise that is not out of 
date is equivalent in value to gold. Who ever heard 
[ 223 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

of a man selling a five-dollar gold piece for four 
dollars and ninety-five cents ? Is there any reason¬ 
able excuse why a salesman should sell a piece of 
cloth — regular goods, up-to-date, and worth a 
dollar — for ninety-five cents ? Certainly not from 
the two common causes that lead to price-cutting — 
fear that a customer will think you are robbing him, 
and the fact that your customer has more staying 
qualities than you have, when he talks you into giving 
him a lower price than that marked on your goods. 

From actual experience, covering many years 
as salesman, as buyer, and as manager of salesmen, 
I am prepared to say that ninety per cent of the 
cases where price-cutting is indulged in are due to 
one or the other of the causes mentioned above. 

Almost without exception, in every case where 
the salesman weakens on prices, the desire to cut 
to meet a combined attack from competitor and 
customer results from his ignorance of values. 
Know your goods; know that the 'price is right; 
know that your goods are good goods and will sell; 
know that you can sell them ,— and you will never 
dream of price-cutting. A dollar’s worth for a dollar 
is all that any reasonable-minded dealer has any 
right to expect, or that any honest wholesaler or 
manufacturer has any right to give. 

Every time that a manufacturer, wholesaler, or 
salesman, knowingly or otherwise, undersells a com- 
[ 224 ] 


Getting the Price 

petitor or cuts to meet him in price, he either estab¬ 
lishes or aids and abets a practice that is widespread 
in its destructiveness to commercial interests in gen¬ 
eral. Such methods are at once illegitimate and 
unbusiness-like, and therefore unqualifiedly wrong. 

“That’s queer,” chorus the salesman and 
wholesaler of little principle and less backbone. 
“ Can’t a man do with his goods what he pleases ? ” 

Legally, yes. Morally, no. 

No man has any moral right to undermine the 
work of others all around him who are honestly 
engaged in their efforts to become successful. The 
quicker the price-cutting salesman is forced out of the 
profession, the better. If it is his house that is guilty, 
the sooner it fails and goes into bankruptcy, the bet¬ 
ter for the common good of others engaged in its line. 

At the time our new rules went into effect with 
our salesmen, we also abolished the two-price system 
which had been in vogue in our store since its incep¬ 
tion. Our men loudly proclaimed that the “ short- 
price ” customers would never stand for it, and that 
we should lose a large percentage of our big accounts. 
I do not now recall that we lost a single customer. 

Our line being a seasonable one, we paid a little 
closer attention to the buying end of the business, and 
we found our customers ready to pay our price for 
merchandise that was in demand; the kind that was 
not, they would not take at any price. 

[225 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

I took a short trip into the West in the interests 
of certain large accounts. The line I took along was 
exclusively from our manufacturing department. 
This line we sold both to jobber and retailer. We 
had placed it that season with a number of large 
jobbers in our own territory, whose competition we 
were obliged to meet on our own goods sold through 
our own jobbing department. 

Naturally, the matter of fixing the price was an 
interesting one with us, having, as stated, abolished 
the two-price system, while the jobbers to whom we 
had sold were still using it. The situation was per¬ 
plexing, but we were determined to act on the princi¬ 
ple we had laid down, and so we marked the line at a 
fair and reasonable profit without concern as to what 
others were doing with it. 

This was an unusual instance, and I am relating 
it solely for the purpose of illustrating how utterly 
groundless are the salesman’s fears, who attempts to 
prognosticate the attitude his customers may take 
toward his house in case it is discovered that he over¬ 
charged them. 

But to return to that Western trip. An old 
customer and personal friend, who conducted an 
extensive business in one of the cities visited, took a 
decided fancy to the line. He was a good buyer, was 
very direct, said but little, and required no urging. 

After thoroughly looking the line over, he 

[ 226 ] 


Getting the Price 

selected twenty or thirty numbers in good quantities, 
without question as to prices. 

There was one pattern, however, that came in 
several styles that attracted his attention, but he 
could not seem to decide upon it. When we had 
gone through the entire line he returned to that 
pattern, examining very attentively the various styles, 
the meanwhile revolving something in his mind that 
was slow in coming out. 

Venturing to help him, I remarked, “That 
pattern seems to interest you.” 

“Yes, I like it,” he answered, “but at the price, 
eighteen dollars per dozen, I can’t use it. The 
pattern suits me, and I would give you an order for 
several dozen at sixteen fifty, which would enable 
me to put it out at a certain price I was figuring on, 
but I don’t want to make a price on your goods.” 

I chaffered with him a little to no purpose, 
finally making the concession. I figured out that no 
harm could come of it, as he was our only customer 
there; besides, I wanted to please him, as he had 
given me an exceptionally good order, and sixteen 
dollars and fifty cents was all that I would have 
asked of him under our former two-price system. 

Ah! but those are not the real reasons why I 
came down on the price. I might as well own up 
that I was afraid some one of those other houses 
carrying our line would come along and quote him 
[ 227 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

a short price on that number, placing me in an 
embarrassing position that would be difficult to 
explain, especially as I knew that two houses were 
selling him more goods than we were, who had the 
line from us that season. 

When I returned home and related my ex¬ 
perience to our manufacturer, he laughed so long and 
loud that it made me angry, and I asked him what 
there was funny about it. 

“Funny? Ha! ha!” he exclaimed, “it’s the 
funniest thing I ever heard of. Here you’ve been 
conjuring up in your mind what our competitors 
would do to you on the price of that pattern, and it’s 
the only dead thing in the line. We positively 
have n’t placed a dozen of it with any jobber on our 
books.” 

It did look funny, and I laughed too, but that 
cured me of worrying about my competitors’ prices. 

Work hard , intelligently , and perseveringly on 
your line of goods. Never fear competition; do not 
see it , hear it , or feel it — that is the way to make com¬ 
petition fear you . Too much time is lost in watching 
for possible evil to ourselves resulting from another’s 
methods. Let the other fellow lose it. 

Competition is like the weather: it is different 
on different days, but it is always with us. The 
man who fears the weather is sure to catch cold. 


Dress and Orderliness 


CHAPTER XVII 


DRESS AND ORDERLINESS 


Pay attention to your clothes , and 
others will pay attention to you. 

Orderliness in salesmanship is 
the science made more perfect. 

OOD clothes help to make a salesman. Ob- 



servers are more impressed by the tidiness of 
one’s clothing than by its expensiveness or variety. 

It is said that no one ever notices a man’s linen, 
unless it is soiled; or his hat, unless it is of unusual 
shape, or dusty, or shabby; or his shoes, unless they 
are loud, or need blacking, or are worn down at the 


heel. 


True, unpleasant conditions do attract notice, 
but it is undeniable that the observer is always 
agreeably impressed by the cleanliness and good 
style which distinguish the gentleman. Every sales¬ 
man, therefore, owes it to himself and to his house to 
he well dressed. 

The secret lies more in the choice of clothes and 
the way they are taken care of than in their expensive¬ 
ness or variety. Often the man with a modest ward¬ 
robe is better dressed than the one with many suits. 
Naturally, the man is light-headed, not to say wicked, 
who would squander on coats, boots, and neckties an 


Men Who Sell Things 

income sufficient to support several families; but the 
example of the careless, slovenly man is not inviting, 
and if extravagance is to be deplored, there is merit 
in good dressing. Strike the happy medium. Be 
neither a Beau Brummell nor a dust-stained Weary 
Willie. 

Neglect of the clothing is a symptom of sloven¬ 
liness that is apt to be progressive. 

The well-dressed salesman is scrupulously neat, 
carries himself well, and is alert and active. The 
salesman who is content with ill-fitting clothes, 
shabby hat, soiled linen, rusty shoes, and a collar 
that is a size too large may be a very bright man and 
representing a first-class house, but he certainly does 
not look that way. The first impression the observer 
forms of him is that he is a “ down-and-outer,” 
bordering on a state of collapse. So much depends 
on first impressions and in keeping up good impres¬ 
sions once formed, that every salesman should regard 
his personal appearance as important. 

Contempt for clothes is too often associated with 
laziness. The salesmen whom the general trade care 
to meet are those who “ keep up ” in every way. In 
matters like dress, it is a good thing for the salesman 
to try to get a look at himself “as others see him.” 

It matters little what your income is or the 
claims there may be upon it, you can at least afford 
to patronize a tailor who can give your clothes a 
[ 230 ] 


Dress and Orderliness 

stylish cut and a neat fit. Properly selected and 
adjusted fifty-cent neckties look as good as dollar 
ones; and a hat that becomes you costs no more than 
a misfit. 

Personal appearance in salesmanship counts so 
much and costs so little, that any salesman can afford 
the price, and it is money well invested. A man is 
judged almost as much by his appearance as by his 
actions or the degree of his sanity in this progressive 
age. A well-dressed, alert salesman will get a “ look 
in” with a brusque merchant, while his slovenly 
brother is being waved aside with the busy signal. 

Orderliness in dress goes hand in hand with 
orderliness in the sample-room and orderliness in 
everything else connected with the work of a sales¬ 
man. Nothing creates in the buyer a desire to buy 
like stepping into a well-ordered salesroom. The 
most attractive line of goods will lose out fifty per 
cent through ineffective display in a cluttered-up 
room. 

The proper display of samples on the road is a 
subject worthy of the closest study. Due care should 
also be given to cleaning up the sample-room in 
general before going out to round up a customer. 
Waste paper, trays, and empty boxes should be 
stowed away out of sight, and everything arranged 
in apple-pie order, if one hopes to conduct a cus¬ 
tomer through the line without a hitch. 

[ 231 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Some salesmen are naturally orderly; others 
learn to be, by hard knocks taught in the school of 
experience; and still another class never learn the 
lesson. I graduated from the second class during 
my first year on the road. It happened in this way. 

My line was displayed in a large, hustling, 
northern Michigan town. Our house had practi¬ 
cally no business there, and my first three visits 
were devoted largely to an effort to interest the 
largest concern in the place; but I failed. 

On my fourth trip I found the buyer of my line 
away on sick leave. The head of the house was a 
crusty, nervous old man; but not wishing to be 
turned down altogether, I summoned courage enough 
to approach him. 

In place of the curt refusal I expected to receive, 
to my surprise he asked in a quick, sharp manner if 
I would be in my room at the hotel at twelve o’clock. 
Receiving a reply in the affirmative, he promised to 
meet me there at that hour. With eager expectancy 
I went back to wait out the interval. I was nervous 
and dreaded his coming, for that was my first ex¬ 
perience face to face with a big merchant. 

He was on time to the second. With youthful 
indiscretion I greeted him rather more effusively than 
the occasion required, which he failed to notice, how¬ 
ever, for he pushed right by me into the room without 
any ceremony whatever. Before I had recovered my 
[ 232 ] 


Dress and Orderliness 

mental equilibrium, he was firing questions at me, 
two at a time, concerning the value of various items 
in the line. Without giving me time to answer even 
his first inquiry, he started for the door, with the 
remark that he guessed there wasn’t anything he 
wanted. Stopping on the threshold, he turned and 

said, ‘‘If you have a black silk at-, I can use 

a few pieces.” 

“Certainly,” I said, “I'm sure we have it,” and 
commenced a search that ended in despair. The 
piece-goods samples were jumbled in a telescope 
with two or three other lines, and in spite of desper¬ 
ate efforts to locate that silk sample I couldn’t put 
my hand on the right one, although I knew it was 
there. 

He got impatient, and I got nervous, which gave 
me blind staggers, and I couldn’t have found that 
sample if it had stood in front of me as large as the 
statue of Liberty. Muttering something about “ dis¬ 
orderly salesmen,” he rushed out, banging the door 
behind him. I dropped into a convenient chair in a 
cold sweat. Ten minutes later I located the offend¬ 
ing sample and started to run over to his store with 
it, when it struck me that he was probably at 
luncheon. At one-thirty I found him in his office 
and hastened to apologize for the delay. 

“Never mind troubling yourself, young man,” 
he said, in a rasping tone, “I have just placed an 
[ 233 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

order for twenty pieces of the silk I wanted with a 
New York salesman who keeps his samples where 
he can find them.” And then to give good measure, 
he added, “If you remain on the road and expect 
to succeed, you ’ll have to keep your wits about 
you.” 

The loss of that order amounted to four hun¬ 
dred dollars, besides a chance to get an opening- 
wedge in with a gilt-edge concern. I did n’t need 
any coaching after that, on how to keep stock in 
the sample-room. 

Proper care of samples is as necessary as effec¬ 
tive display or orderly arrangement. 

The three vital factors in the successful sale of 
goods from samples are: first , the standing of your 
house; second , your own power of persuasion; third , 
the condition of your samples. 

The most painstaking salesman will find that 
with packing and unpacking his trunks every day, 
his samples soon become worn and unattractive. 
What then happens to the careless man ? Many a 
time I have seen a line of what had once been choice 
goods in an utterly shabby condition before they had 
been out ten days, and for the balance of a trip 
of several weeks the salesman carrying them was 
obliged to make the best showing he could with 
ruined samples. 

It is a difficult matter, even for a buyer possess- 
[ 234 ] 


Dress and Orderliness 

ing the keenest imagination, to stretch his fancy 
from a straw-hat sample that looks like a punctured 
bushel basket to the smart article of headgear it was 
when it came fresh from the factory. 

When a clothing salesman extracts from a pile 
a garment that resembles a linen duster instead of the 
snappy, up-to-date coat that it once was, his cus¬ 
tomer is very likely to class it with the “ has-beens ” 
and ask to be shown something in the prevailing style. 

A good-looking sample is a sale half made. 

When I was in the jobbing business at D-, 

a prominent straw-goods manufacturer called on us, 
accompanied by his regular salesman. 

The occasion of his visit was to introduce a new 
line. He succeeded in arousing the interest of our 
hat-buyer, who induced me to go along with him to 
the manufacturer’s sample-room to look his line over. 
Picking up a certain block that he thought was des¬ 
tined to have a great run, the manufacturer started 
to show forth its merits. Stopping suddenly, his 
eyes riveted on a certain spot on that hat, he called 
his salesman over to our group, and there in front of 
us all gave the unlucky fellow the worst “ roasting ” 
I ever heard. 

“Do you see that dent in the crown of this 
hat ?” he asked. 

It was so small that the rest of us had failed to 
notice it; but his salesman admitted it was there. 

[ 235 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

“Well,” continued the manufacturer, “haven’t 
I told you repeatedly to pack your samples so as to 
insure them against damage ? In another two weeks 
this sample will be utterly worthless. Do you ex¬ 
pect to finish your trip introducing this hat, and to 
take orders from it in a dilapidated state?” 

The manufacturer worked himself up to a great 
state, while his salesman stood before him, utterly 
unable to defend himself. Although he was guilty 
of carelessness, he was too manly to offer excuses, so 
said nothing. 

“ Perhaps you know where another line is com¬ 
ing from; I don’t,” his employer started in again. 
“ I tell you what it is, I want you to take more care 
with these samples. If it takes all day to pack up, 
you see to it after this that they are packed to avoid 
breaking.” 

The salesman was saved from further reprimand 
by a telephone call from the office. When he had 
left the room I asked his employer if he was n’t a 
little rough on him, and whether such talks were 
not more effectively conducted in private. 

“Perhaps so. No doubt you are right,” he 
answered in a half-apologetic manner, “but it is so 
exasperating. I lost my self-control for the moment. 
Permit me to explain, however, what my salesman 
knew from long experience, that a new line of samples 
like these is made ready only after weeks of work 
[ 236 ] 


Dress and Orderliness 

and great expense. Our sample line is our stock in 
trade until the orders are all in and the factory run¬ 
ning. A duplicate line could not be had, excepting 
at great cost and a loss of time. In any event, 
there is really very little excuse for careless packing. 
A damaged sample is a poor foundation argument 
upon which to build a satisfactory business in a new 
line.” 

Barring the unpleasantness of the sample-room 
incident, that talk impressed me so, that, immediately 
on returning to my office, I caused to be sent out to 
our own travelling men a detailed account of what 
had taken place. 

A salesman’s duty to his house does not consist 
alone in reaching a satisfactory figure in volume 
of sales. Other things require his attention to com¬ 
plete his real worth. Profit, not sales, is the objec¬ 
tive point of every house. Chasing sales instead of 
profits is a disastrous game for either salesman or 
employer. Wanton extravagance in expense, loss 
from damage on samples, returned goods, and claims 
of whatsoever nature, resulting from loose methods 
in making sales, are all profit-drainers. If you wish 
your sales to increase, and if you have an honest 
interest in seeing your house make profits, see to it 
that your sample-line is kept in the best possible 
condition. 

Again: orderliness plays an important part in 
[ 237 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the clerical work every salesman is obliged to do 
each day. Your bad penmanship may be pardoned 
if you have not had the advantages of thorough 
training, but there can be no possible excuse for you 
if your orders are so carelessly transcribed as to be 
incomprehensible. 

We had in our employ a man of exceptional 
ability as a salesman; but in spite of his superior 
attainments in other respects, it seemed impossible 
for him to transcribe an order properly. The habit 
of carelessness had such a hold upon him that, 
in spite of the repeated efforts of the head of the 
house and others, down to the order clerk, he could 
not be made to reform. He would invariably omit 
the name of the town, or the customer’s name, 
or neglect to state departments, so that the office 
was in a constant turmoil when filling his orders. 
He was great on abbreviating. He would so 
abbreviate words that only he and a mind-reader 
could have deciphered them. We never could get 
him into the habit of being orderly about these 
things. 

Don’t let the habit of disorderliness grow upon 
you if you want to be a help instead of a nuisance 
to the order-filling department, where so much de¬ 
pends upon quick service. Be particular also to see 
to it that your manager is kept in constant touch with 
your movements on the road. At times it means 
[ 238 ] 


Dress and Orderliness 

much to any business to be able to reach a salesman 
within a few hours by wire. 

Some men travel their itinerary with the pre¬ 
cision of an advance agent for a theatrical company. 
The office can put its finger on them any time, any¬ 
where around the circuit, almost on the instant. 
And their return home occurs on the very day and 
hour of their original schedule left in the office on 
their departure. Others leave behind a carefully 
prepared route list, and from the moment their 
backs are turned on headquarters, they proceed to 
hop, skip, and jump erratically over their territory. 
They are never to be located, and seldom return 
within three or four days of scheduled time. When 
they do come in, it is ten to one that a bee-line is 
made for the manager’s office, where they begin to 
kick about being “ neglected ” on new samples and 
other current matter such as was sent out to the 
men every few days. 

Keep in touch with the office if you want the 
office to keep in touch with you. 

Be orderly about everything pertaining to your 
work, and your interests and the interests of your 
house will move forward with clock-like precision, 
bringing satisfaction of a triple alliance nature to 
customers, house, and salesman. 


[ 239 ] 


Mm Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER XVIII 


RETAIL SALESMEN 


Less working at it, and more thought about 
it, would help many salesmen behind 
the counter to rise above the dead level. 

Sunshiny salesmanship softens the frostiest buyer. 

OT yet, but soon” — the “near-salesman’s” 



^ motto — explains the reason why more sales¬ 
men measuring calico at eight dollars a week are not 
earning eighteen hundred dollars a year or more, 
at the silk or dress-goods counter. Yet there is 
room for real salesmanship even behind the calico 
counter, and the essentials are the same there as 
anywhere else. 

It is an honorable occupation, to be sure; but 
when a young salesman is content to remain at it 
longer than a year, his gumption is several degrees 
below ambition. If he cannot in some manner 
raise it up a few degrees at a time, until it reaches an 
ordinary man’s thinking and working capacity, he 
will be rooted there for the remainder of his days. 

Many retail salesmen drudge along, satisfied 
with a mere treadmill existence. “ Oh, what’s the 
use?” they argue, “there’s no chance in a retail 
store, anyway.” 

If there is no chance for you where you are, it 


[ 240 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


is a dead certainty that you are not suited for the 
work you are doing, and the sooner you get out and 
give some one else a chance, the sooner will you be 
giving both yourself and your employer a square 
deal. As a rule, the salesman’s position behind 
the counter is a pretty fair measure of his capa¬ 
bilities. 

Some salesmen have the capacity to draw mo¬ 
lasses from the bung-hole in a barrel without smear¬ 
ing it over the measure and on the floor; they can 
weigh out a dollar’s worth of sugar, and do it so well 
that the balance is a hair’s weight in favor of the 
customer; but if they were put in charge of the gen¬ 
eral order-filling department, with several salesmen 
under them, they would fizzle out completely. They 
have not the breadth of mind to grasp the require¬ 
ments of a large position, and they attempt to apply 
their small conception of trotting from the molasses- 
barrel to the sugar-box to the more important mat¬ 
ter of mastering many details. It can’t be done; 
and naturally they fail. 

As the retail salesman broadens his position, 
he assumes new responsibilities, and he must change 
his viewpoint to fit the expanding scope of his greater 
undertaking. Floaters, life-buoys, and danger-ropes 
are all right for timid surf-bathers, but to swim out 
into broad, deep water requires physical courage 
and well-seasoned powers of endurance. Inability 
[*«] 


Men Who Sell Things 

to leave the shore line marks the man who would bet¬ 
ter stay in close to shore, where little boats are safe. 

There is, oh, so much for a salesman to be, to 
do, to get, to earn, to try, in every retail establish¬ 
ment, that there is little excuse and less hope for the 
man who says there is no chance. 

I have no desire in my heart to say one thing 
derogatory to your position, no matter how humble 
it may be. 

The man whom I am after, whether he is at 
the five-cent counter or taking orders that run up 
into the hundreds, is that self-important, small- 
calibre “near-salesman” who so thoroughly neglects 
his customers that they grow chilly in his presence, 
even though the day is hot. Few retail shoppers 
escape frequent experiences of that kind, and it is 
safe to say that no one ever becomes a better customer 
of the house where salespeople of that stamp are tol¬ 
erated. The house may be a good one, but one goes 
away feeling that they do not appreciate his trade. 

Now, if you “near-salesmen” don’t like what I 
am writing about you and to you, don’t look at me. 
Get your eyes open so that you can see yourself,— 
that is the first sight to look at. 

What are you cutting up about? Putting on 
airs with a twelve-dollar-a-week position! That’s 
what every one who patronizes your counter is trying 
to figure out. 


[ 242 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


Your house does not pay you to strut around 
like a farm-yard bantam rooster. All that your 
customers want from you, and have a right to ex¬ 
pect, is courteous, business-like attention, without 
frills of any kind. 

I want to get you mad. That’s why I’m using 
unceremonious language in developing your picture. 
When a man gets good and angry because some one 
has told him the truth about himself, he can gener¬ 
ally be depended upon to go out and “ clean up ” in 
a thorough, wholesome manner. If he makes a 
good job of it, it won’t be long before you hear of 
him doing something of real account. 

I never saw an uppish salesman in my life 
in whose salesmanship I had any confidence. A 
“smart” salesman is a man whom no one cares to 
have much to do with. 

When a man becomes inoculated with the germs 
of true salesmanship, he gets it in his blood, muscles, 
head, and soul, all over from head to foot, and it 
makes a sensible, industrious man of him. 

Carry a smile through your work. Whenever 
a salesman cannot be sunshiny with his customers 
he is in need of a liver tonic. 

“Blessed is he who, having found his own 
work, clutches it, clings to it, directly, consecutively, 
and always.” 

Therein lies the secret of accomplishment. 

[ 243 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

When a salesman has little or no conception of the 
obligations his position imposes upon him, to say 
nothing of lack of desire for advancement, then 
it is that soft platitudes and high-sounding phrases 
are of no avail. 

This book is for negative salesmen, not positive 
ones. The man who is surrounded and choked up 
with weeds of indolence, neglect, and carelessness 
is the one I want to reach. 

Pulling weeds loosens the roots and injures the 
growing plant for the moment; but soon it lifts its 
head and takes on new growth in the free soil, 
becoming sturdy and eventually fruitful instead of 
a weak, withered, inanimate thing almost crushed 
out by the weeds that were gradually sapping its 
life. 

The safest and surest way for the retail salesman 
to advance from a lowly position to a better one is by 
performing his daily work in a thoroughly satisfac¬ 
tory manner. His present surroundings may not be 
congenial, but all that can be changed if he will set 
his mind on something better and strive hard to 
reach it. Wishing will not do it. He must work 
and be patient. 

Begin by being polite and obliging to every 
customer that visits your counter , whether you think 
there is a chance for a sale or not. Make it plain 
that it is not only no trouble for you to show goods, 
[ 244 ] 


Retail Salesmen 

but a pleasure. Make your customers feel at home 
with you on the instant by an immediate willingness 
to serve them intelligently. Create desire by mak¬ 
ing tactful, helpful suggestions. 

There is considerable difference between the 
salesman that attempts to force facts down the 
buyer’s throat and the one that offers information 
in reasonable, smooth, and pleasing doses. Do not 
thrust your ideas upon your customers, but in an 
easy, natural, and pleasing way attract their sym¬ 
pathy and secure their confidence. You will then 
experience little trouble in making sales, even where 
desire is totally lacking, as indicated on the surface. 

Get over the idea that where there is no desire 
there is no chance to make a sale, and that almost 
every one entering a retail store has his mind fully 
made up on what he intends to purchase. Nothing 
could be farther from the real facts. The average 
shopper is glad to have suggestions when he knows 
they are honestly and intelligently given . But the 
whole matter rests on confidence. You can do nothing 
to aid a customer in making selections until you 
have first secured his good-will by that indefinable 
something in your manner that leads him to believe 
that you are to be trusted, and that you really wish 
to be of service to him. 

It is important also that you do not fool your¬ 
self into believing that your employers are unmind- 
[ 245 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

ful of your presence in their establishment, and that 
whether you are serving them ill or well makes no 
difference, because either way it escapes their notice. 

That mistaken idea is at the foundation of 
many a clerk’s failure. Depend upon it, your 
weekly sales are closely scanned, and your general 
deportment keenly observed. That you do not 
receive periodical lectures from your superiors, or 
that you are not discharged, as you might have 
expected, is not good evidence that you are not 
being watched. On the contrary, every move you 
make is mentally or otherwise recorded. 

If you are a half-hearted, go-as-you-please sales¬ 
man, the chances are that you would have been 
discharged long ago, but for the fact that your 
employers know from experience how hard it is to 
get capable, trustworthy salespeople, and that the 
best they can hope for is a fair average. 

Where are you, Mr. Salesman ? Above or 
below the average? 

It matters not so much to your employers to 
which class you belong, so long as the average 
remains good, but it is of the utmost importance to 
yourself. If you are below the average, the responsi¬ 
bility rests solely with you to get on the other side of 
the dead-line. That there is plenty of room goes 
without saying; it only remains for you to show 
your real worth, and the transfer will take place 
[ 246 ] 


Retail Salesmen 

without your giving notice that you are ready to 
move up. 

There are as many opportunities for advance¬ 
ment in the retail as in the wholesale branch of any 
business; but if the wholesale salesman conducted 
himself as thousands of retail salesmen are doing 
every day all over the land, he would last just about 
one trip, and that would end his career on the road. 

The travelling salesman goes out and digs up 
business, while his retail brother stays at home to 
receive it. In either case the chances for advance¬ 
ment are about even. 

The average travelling salesman does not miss 
many towns without making sales of some sort; but 
hundreds of prospective buyers are turned away 
from retail stores every day without being properly 
waited upon, and this results in a serious loss of 
business to the house where indifferent salesmen are 
employed. 

How many customers visit your counter or de¬ 
partment every month and go away without buying 
anything, is a question for you to decide. One 
thing is certain to the man who is familiar with both 
branches of the trade, and that is that many sales 
are lost at retail in large establishments every day 
from lack of attention and proper selling ability, 
such as is absolutely necessary on the part of the 
travelling salesman. 


[ 247 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

If every retail salesman could take a trip on 
the road for a few weeks, he would return to his 
counter and increase his sales fifty per cent the 
first month thereafter. 

The best way for a retail salesman to decide 
on how to treat his customers is to pay an occasional 
visit to other retail houses for purchases , and to take 
particular notice of the treatment accorded him by 
the salesmen in each place, and the effect it has 
upon him. Then he should remember to put him¬ 
self in the place of the salesman who made the 
best impression on him, whenever his customers 
come to buy. 

When a prospective buyer approaches you, who 
has just been treated in a cold-blooded manner by 
an inefficient, neglectful clerk in a competitor’s store, 
and you greet him with a pleasant smile and oblig¬ 
ingly show him everything he wants to see, and 
especially something that he will be much inter¬ 
ested in, you will generally succeed in making a 
sale, and your new-found customer will go away 
feeling that he has done well to change his trade 
from the cold-blooded house. 

Now, Mr. Retail Salesman, stop and give this 
matter some thought. Remember that while behind 
the counter in your employer’s store, you take the 
place of your employer to every customer with whom 
you come in contact. Also remember that in other 
[ 248 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


stores, and perhaps at other counters in the one 
in which you are employed, there are plenty of 
salesmen who are cold and “chesty” to their cus¬ 
tomers, and that if you can manage to be never out 
of sorts with any customer, you gain a signal advan¬ 
tage over your grouchy neighbors. 

Which salesman do you think it will best pay 
you to copy,— the one who made the best im¬ 
pression on you on your own purchasing tour, or 
the one who, with a cold look and an impudent 
sneer, freezes the very buying instinct out of every 
possible customer that comes within his reach? 

Do not think that because your neighboring 
salesman is discourteous and neglectful of his trade 
without losing his position, you can afford to be 
that way whenever you feel like it. Your worst 
competitor is yourself. The most important battles 
to fight are from within, and not without. 

By always being pleasant to your customers, 
great and small, by showing your appreciation of 
their trade, and by interesting yourself in the things 
you know will interest them, you can soon out¬ 
distance your ill-natured neighbor in the race for 
success. A continuation of the same kind of treat¬ 
ment which puts him out of the race will, also, 
soon show results in the fight you are making for 
promotion. 

You can be sure of one thing — if you try 
[ 249 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

your best to be friendly and accommodating to all 
customers and show them you appreciate them, you 
will be doing all that any one could possibly do to 
get and hold their trade, all that was ever done by 
those who were once struggling as you are for a 
foothold, but who now enjoy high-salaried positions 
and a share in the profits in the house where you 
are employed. 

Every successful retail merchant started where 
you are and won out by being faithful to his trust. 

Your very biggest club with which to despatch 
all doubt as to your advancement is the good-will 
and confidence of those above you in authority, 
and the friendly feeling of every one with whom you 
have dealings of any sort. With this, a thorough 
knowledge of your particular line of goods, and a 
careful study of the duties of the man just ahead 
of you in a more responsible position, you will find 
you are in mighty good shape to hold your own 
against all newcomers, and to be a candidate for 
promotion on the first opportunity that arises. 
There is no such thing as good salesmanship without 
enthusiasm. I know we have what we call “near- 
salesmen,” but they do not possess that precious 
quality. 

I do not believe you can separate enthusiasm 
and true salesmanship. In fact, enthusiasm is the 
life of salesmanship. 


[ 250 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


The salesman who is enthusiastic in the sense 
that he pays more attention to the sporting edition 
of the daily papers than to his customers, who hands 
out a yard and a half of unbleached cotton and a 
mile and a half of self-importance for twelve cents, 
does not know the meaning of enthusiasm. 

And I want to say to you men who profess to be 
salesmen, but who are just plain every-day shams, 
that I do not intend to lose a single chance to pour 
hot shot and grape and canister into your ranks. 
You are the gentlemen I am after. 

Now, if the sham salesmen who happen to en¬ 
counter these lines want to continue to be shams in 
the open, I say, “ Go it, go it, boys ”; but if you 
members of the profession who are only “near¬ 
salesmen ” posing as the genuine article want to 
continue so to pose, I will brand you as no-accounts 
until you either reform or renounce your faith in 
the profession of salesmanship, and start to look 
for some other kind of employment. 

Somebody has a right to say a few things along 
these lines, and I propose to have it out with your 
class before I get through with you, whether you 
interpose any objections or not. I want to talk to 
you men who have made your sham pretences in 
the world of salesmanship and drawn pay for work 
wretchedly done, keeping a real salesman out of the 
game that you are trying to play. You have been 
[ 251 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

at it long enough to be a stumbling-block and a dis¬ 
grace to the science of the greatest of all professions. 

I can stand anything better than I can stand a 
sham or shirking salesman. I always did have a 
hatred for near-things, humbugs, and cheats, and 
of all the humbugs that ever plied a profession, the 
“near-salesman” is the “humbuggest.” 

When a man who thinks he is a salesman gets 
a little swell-headedness, a little “ I ’m-it-ness,” 
and a little of almost everything, and is made up 
out of a hundred different sorts of negative things, 
and attains a little twelve-dollar-a-week position, then 
he is a first-class humbug in every sense of the word. 

With your salesmanship right, with the foun¬ 
tain clear, the stream will be clear. With a good 
tree the fruit will be good. And I declare to you, 
“near-salesmen,” that the hardest work a man 
ever tried to do is to be a salesman without sales¬ 
manship; to be a good salesman with a shallow 
nature and a sham heart. 

There’s no denying the fact that every retail 
salesman is at times sorely tried with people who 
look at the world through blue glasses, but the pro¬ 
fessional salesman knows that sunshiny salesman¬ 
ship softens the frostiest buyer. It is difficult to 
keep patient while waiting on a grumpy customer, 
but it pays in the end to keep your temper, even with 
the most obstinate and surly. 

[ 252 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


The salesman who is intent on achieving the 
greatest selling results literally burrows into the 
business of selling goods. He must have a nose for 
sales-making as true and keen as the scent of the 
bloodhound. That is enthusiasm. It can be devel¬ 
oped. Fall in love with your work, and you cannot 
help becoming enthusiastic. 

Enthusiasm is a soul quality springing from 
knowledge and confidence. The more knowledge 
you have, the greater becomes your confidence, and 
your enthusiasm increases in the same proportion. 

Look on the bright side of things. Nothing so 
'paralyzes enthusiasm as pessimism. 

Next to honesty, enthusiasm is the most essen¬ 
tial quality in successful retail salesmanship. 

Arguments are of no avail, and tact is worse 
than wasted, if you do not present your subject with 
all the enthusiasm you can muster. 

The listless answers and hesitating manner of 
“near-salesmen” cause all shoppers to wonder why 
these men are not displayed in the show-cases in 
front of them in place of the goods they represent. 

Put the goods on top of the case and crawl in¬ 
side, Mr. Near Salesman. Almost any article of 
merchandise in your department is able to plead its 
own case much more eloquently and effectively than 
can you, if you will give it half a chance. 

Who has not been angered and driven away in 
[ 253 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

disgust by having goods banged down in front of him 
and the price hurled in his teeth by a dyspeptic sales¬ 
man with a makes-little-difference-to-me-whether- 
you-take-it-or-leave-it expression, who, believing his 
whole mission is performed, stands glaring at him, 
waiting for his decision ? 

In truth, the only thing the customer is trying to 
decide upon is whether to land on his brainless 
cranium, report him at the office, or go ^across the 
street and get what he wants from Joy, Gladhand 
& Co. If he is of a peaceful, retiring nature, and 
does not want to create a scene, he hastily selects 
something that he would n’t have as a gift under 
other circumstances; but he is determined to have 
no more dealings with that house. He will keep 
on trading with Joy, Gladhand & Co. 

Then there’s a twin brother to our dyspeptic 
friend, a few doors down the street. His name is 
Meander Gadgood. You walk blithely up to his 
counter, feeling at peace with all the universe, and 
stand there, first on one foot and then the other,— 
two, three, five minutes,— waiting for Meander to 
separate himself from a group of pennant-winning 
judges in council at the other end of the counter. 

Just as you are thinking of going over to Joy, 
Gladhand & Co.’s, Meander, with a ten-mile look 
in his eyes, saunters up. Never a word does he speak. 
With one eye menacingly raking you over from head 
[ 254 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


to foot, and the other regretfully focussed on the 
other boys, he stands there, his gray matter — what 
little there is of it — following his favorite ball team 
on a distant diamond. 

Though there is a reasonable excuse for homi¬ 
cide on your part, you smother your wrath and polite¬ 
ly ask to be shown the latest styles in three-dollar 
fancy shirts. Listlessly reaching into the case, 
Meander paws over the stock, extracts a couple of 
patterns, slides them over to you with the air of one 
administering absent treatment, and stalks back 
to see how the judges have settled the matter. 

About the time you have concluded that you 
don’t need any more shirts anyway, back he comes 
and hovers like a phantom long enough for you to 
say, in tones that indicate a gathering storm, that if 
he is through with his more important business than 
waiting on his customers you will look at a few more 
shirts, including some of the good sellers. 

Not being an adept at human barometer read¬ 
ing, Meander fumbles around in the stock, finally 
lugging out one or two more patterns that any man, 
to say nothing of a shirt salesman, might know were 
selected with poor taste. Bombarding you with his 
new-found relics of a past season’s success, he retreats 
again in perfect order to the rear-guard for another 
confab. Intuitively feeling the angry glances cast 
in his direction, he determines to renew the attack by 
[ 255 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

rushing things, and sails back only to be repulsed 
with a fusillade of indignant protests. 

Without a moment’s further loss of time, you are 
well on your way to Joy, Gladhand & Co.’s, where, 
when you ask to see shirts in any style or price, no 
effort is spared until the entire line is promptly dis¬ 
played, if necessary, to please a customer and insure 
a sale. 

Are you that kind of salesman ? If you recog¬ 
nize your portrait and it fails to please you, don’t 
blame the photographer. He cannot improve on 
nature by making a pleasing likeness from an un¬ 
attractive subject. 

Mr. Near Salesman, the time has gone by when 
representation without courtesy, or life, or enthus¬ 
iasm can produce profitable sales. You must show 
the spirit of accommodation and be interesting and 
convincing in your arguments. You cannot do that 
successfully unless you are full of your subject, have 
the utmost faith in your proposition, and are running 
over with enthusiasm. 

A new spirit rules the world of salesmanship 
in place of the old go-as-you-please regime . It is 
an expression of the mighty force that does things — 
enthusiasm. If your blood corpuscles are not sat¬ 
urated with it, you are out of date, and you will soon 
be out of salesmanship if you do not find a way to 
cultivate it. 


[ 256 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


Enthusiasm, the first requisite in salesmanship, 
a sincere interest in the thing to be sold, and a 
desire to sell it decently,— that is, really, nearly all 
there is to it; for enthusiasm must perforce lead to 
a study and a knowledge of the thing to be sold, as 
well as a study of those to whom we wish to sell it. 
You cannot cultivate enthusiasm with one eye on the 
clock and the other on everything else than the cus¬ 
tomer who is patiently waiting an opportunity to 
spend some of his money at your counter. 

A good salesman must know more about his 
goods than the man he is selling to knows about 
them. Knowledge and enthusiasm beat oratory 
every time. Enthusiasm in a salesman begets en¬ 
thusiasm in a customer. 

You must know your business and you must 
work, if you wish to hold trade, get new trade, and 
draw a bigger salary than the common average of 
salesmen. 

The law of nature is yet to be discovered that 
will prevent a salesman being diplomatic, enthusias¬ 
tic, honest, and hard-working all the time. Look 
about you, and you will discover a few like that 
in the very ranks in which you serve. Keep your 
eyes on them, they will not remain with you long. 
You will see them advanced to managing posi¬ 
tions or owning their own businesses in a few 
years. 


[ 257 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

There is a chance for you if you will about face 
and take up the line of action in real earnest. 

In an interview by a well-known writer on busi¬ 
ness subjects with one of the leading State Street 
department stores in Chicago, he was told by the 
manager that a young man once applied to his house 
for a position as salesman. He was asked what his 
qualifications were, and he answered, “My stock 
in trade consists of knowing the faults of ordinary 
salespeople through having to put up with them 
during many years of shopping.” 

He was given a plaice, and the first day sold 
more goods than any otheV salesman in his depart¬ 
ment. He had the knack of ^putting customers into a 
good humor by laying himself out to 'please. He 
studied his customer’s first inquiry intently, and 
followed that up instantly and intelligently. At 
the end of a year he was earning twenty-five dol¬ 
lars per week in that store. A short time after¬ 
wards he was offered fifty dollars a week by a 
gentleman accompanying a cross-grained customer 
whom he, without losing his temper, had success¬ 
fully waited upon under exceedingly vexing circum¬ 
stances. 

On leaving to accept the new position, one of 
his fellow-salesmen asked him how he accounted for 
his remarkable ability to effect sales. 

Promptly came the reply: “The great majority 
[ 258 ] 


Retail Salesmen 


of salespeople lack tact, enthusiasm, and sympathy 
with customers.” 

A great many high-salaried travelling salesmen, 
and nearly all of the most successful retail merchants 
in the country, have themselves been behind the 
counter. There is no better place to get a selling 
education. 


[ 259 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE SALESMAN’S RELATION TO CREDITS 

Credit builds up business; truth builds up credit. 

T HE fortune of a business house rests on the wis¬ 
dom and courage of the credit man. 

There are three vital branches — buying, selling, 
and credits. 

The credit department, while last in the logical 
line-up, is first in real importance in the final analysis 
of the house’s prosperity as a whole. The woods are 
full of salesmen — bright men who can argue and 
ably defend the right of the selling-branch to claim 
paramountcy over the other two; and buyers are 
ever ready to fall back on the old axiom, “Goods 
well bought are half sold ”; but in reality the credit 
department is the foundation-stone upon which rests 
the prosperity of salesmen, buyers, and all. 

These three great departments are so closely 
interlinked that perforce they must go forward, 
shoulder to shoulder, supporting one another. Like 
the engine, tender, and cars of a train, they must 
pull together. The engine hauls the train; the 
tender carries the coal and water with which to 
get up steam; and the cars bear the load. Each 
has its work to perform. The breaking of a 
[ 260 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

coupling threatens disaster and means a standstill 
all around. 

The object of a train of cars is to get somewhere 
with something. The something is its freight. A 
great business house is a commercial train in charge 
of engineer and conductor. 

Somewhere in a book on salesmanship I have 
seen the salesman described as the engine, steam, 
coal, and the whole paraphernalia. Not so. The 
salesman is just the engineer furnishing the force. 
The buyer is the tender supplying the material. The 
credit man is the car that carries the load. The track 
is its trade. 

The real object of the entire outfit is the load. 
In business the load is its credits. Credits properly 
made mean profits and salaries. The credit man is 
the conductor of the train. The best thing the sales¬ 
man can do if he wants to get aboard is to keep near 
the cars. 

Credit men are the commercial conductors, and 
salesmen are the commercial engineers; there you 
have it right. 

Every salesman should seek to establish a close 
friendly relationship with the credit man of his house. 
The man who thinks he can get along well enough by 
himself makes a great mistake, encountering many 
pitfalls that could easily have been avoided by advis¬ 
ing with his credit man. In the end he must do that 
[ 261 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

anyway, for no sale is final until it passes the credit 
department. The salesman who thinks he could get 
along very nicely if it were not for the “ old man ” at 
the desk would get along a great deal better if he 
took him entirely into his confidence and freely 
sought his advice concerning his trade. 

In turn information to the credit man from the 
salesman, under ordinary conditions, is peculiarly 
valuable. The salesman is posted as is no one else, 
by frequent visits, knows the buyers’ strong and 
weak points, the general condition of trade in the 
towns and surrounding country, and, if shrewd, can 
intuitively sense the hazard of an account from actual 
contact with all conditions surrounding it. If a 
salesman reports his opinion of each risk assumed 
by the house on his territory, it does not take long 
to tell the value of his observations and whether 
he possesses the capacity of giving a dependable 
rating. 

The credit man, like the salesman, must know 
more of a man than he knows himself. 

The two classes of men resemble each other in 
the delicacy and the onerousness of the duty they 
have to perform in reading the signs of the coming 
stoppage of an account. 

No salesman, however efficient in other respects, 
who saddles his firm with uncollectable or trouble¬ 
some accounts, can hope to succeed in the long 
[ 262 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

run. He is a source of loss instead of a medium of 
profit. 

In reality , the salesman is the first judge of 
credits for his house. No matter what fate may 
attend his choice of accounts, when they reach the 
credit man the first selection is entirely in his hands. 
If he is bent on rolling up sales at any hazard more 
than to the more important work of carefully pick¬ 
ing his way and keeping the credit department 
posted on the changing complexion of his customers’ 
affairs, he will find himself continually in hot water. 
He is the first judge of credits in every transaction. 
The credit man may exercise supervision, may accept 
or reject his orders, but he depends upon the sales¬ 
man’s judgment more than on any other source of in¬ 
formation, and looks to him as the man on the ground. 

Exercise your discretion to the best of your 
ability, and where the slightest doubt exists as to a 
basis for credit, tell the credit man all about it. Many 
salesmen, like the ostrich that hides his head in the 
sand, point only to the bright side, in the blind hope 
that the other side will not be detected. One thing 
is certain where this is practised: if the credit man 
is unable to verify the negative side, accepting the 
salesman’s report, and ships the goods, sooner or 
later the telltale truth will come out in the ledger. 
“Be sure your sin will find you out”; there is no 
escaping that ledger in its work of ?parating the 
[ 263 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

sheep from the goats. Then it is that the salesman’s 
weakness is discovered and his measure taken. 

The shrewdest and most experienced make 
mistakes, but picking good accounts means a great 
many things to be avoided as well as accomplished. 
A general warning for over-zealous salesmen, and 
especially for the young salesmen, may be sounded 
in the statement that poor credits always betray 
themselves to the close observer in some manner or 
other, and to avoid unpleasant complications the 
result of such observations should always accom¬ 
pany the order. Better still, leave the “ lame ducks ” 
for the other fellow. There is no sport to the real 
sportsman in taking a crack at a winged bird simply 
to bag the game. Go after the good accounts; there 
are plenty of these on every man’s territory. 

When an account that has once been good begins 
to go the other way, do all you can to preserve it by 
proper nursing, helpful suggestions, and accurate 
information to the credit department Remember 
that the very existence of your house rests on the 
ability of its credit man to know the assets of its 
customers, the condition of their business, the chances 
of being willing and able to pay. With his experi¬ 
enced eye and mind he can foresee a coming crash 
long before the man most interested. He can see 
the faults of location, of stock, of character of the 
man. In refusing credit he oftens renders a service 
[ 264 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

to the prospective customer, but it is seldom appre¬ 
ciated. Now and then a merchant is wise enough 
to take advantage of the candid opinion of an out¬ 
sider and curtail rather than increase his liabilities. 
Usually he is not. 

On the other hand, the credit man, by extending 
credit, often puts heart into a struggling man and 
makes his success certain. A mark of confidence 
from one whose judgment is considered good is 
enough to strengthen a merchant’s belief in him¬ 
self, shaken, perhaps, by unexpected experiences. 

When you are tempted to inwardly curse the 
credit man for “ sitting on orders, ” try to figure out, 
if you can, that you have no one but yourself to blame 
for your disappointment. Orders “ held up ” in the 
office form two classes — those that are “N. G.,” 
and those that require the most rigid inspection. The 
latter frequently receive the approval of the credit 
man and are “ passed out ” as soon as he is satisfied 
from all points of the compass that no real risk is 
involved. The delay in shipment often rests with 
the salesman for not having furnished a correct state¬ 
ment with the order. Remember, the credit man 
must make no mistakes. There is no department of 
the establishment where a blunder may prove so 
costly. He must not reject a good customer or 
approve a bad one. He must use tact in ascertain¬ 
ing the truth and in stating it. The future of the 
[265 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

house rests on his wisdom and courage. A credit 
man can no more make mistakes without discovery 
than a train despatcher can. He cannot begin over 
again like a salesman or buyer; he must do perfect 
work every time. He cannot sink his personality in 
mechanical performance of duty; his personality is 
an essential part of his equipment for work. 

The science of credits is not an exact one, and 
not one to which the same rules are applicable at all 
times and for all lines of business. The endeavor of 
the credit man is to keep his losses as near the zero 
point as possible without limiting sales. There are 
many things he must know, to guide the ship of 
commerce with which he is intrusted, such as the 
condition of a territory as regards money when a 
comparatively small area may be experiencing busi¬ 
ness depression because of continued bad weather, 
extension of a new railroad cutting off trade, crop 
failure, or similar causes, while other territory in the 
same locality is enjoying phenomenal prosperity; he 
must be informed as to the cost of production, amount 
of stock on hand, and in fact all the operative details 
of his own business, to enable him to judge wisely in 
putting out goods. He is obliged to have access to 
many sources of information. What a great help 
it is to the credit man to know he can rely absolutely 
upon the trustworthiness oj his salesmen l 

The credit man’s position is the most responsible 
[ 266 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

of all in the establishment. Like a woman’s work, 
it is never done. He is first at his desk in the morn¬ 
ing and the last to leave at night. Don’t add to his 
cares by being churlish in fancying you are not get¬ 
ting a square deal when your orders are occasionally 
delayed, or ruled out altogether. In his every action 
the best interests of the house receive his first consid¬ 
eration. If it were otherwise, how long could it con¬ 
tinue to pay you your salary ? Too often is criticism 
of the credit department indulged in, because of the 
salesman’s desire to increase his sales at any risk. 

In judging a basis for credit on short notice, 
when selling to a customer for the first time, the 
salesman is obliged to act quickly. His time with 
his customer is necessarily limited. He sells a bill 
and is on his way to the next town. The habit of 
observation, alertness, most of ail his powers of per¬ 
ception are the qualities which must determine the 
worth of a new man. The ledger will find him out 
in the long run — that is not difficult; the thing is to 
do so on the spot by common instinct. 

It is the place of the credit man, and not of the 
salesman, to ask direct questions, for the attempt to 
investigate a customer’s affairs by that method is 
offensive, and nearly always resented. It is a barrier 
to sales-making. Intuition is the only safeguard 
with which to take the measure of the trustworthi¬ 
ness of a man on first approach. 

[ 267 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

It is not easy to sell goods to a hard-headed 
dealer who discounts all his bills. The man to 
look out for is the one who places his orders with a 
lavish hand, indicating his belief that a wholesale 
retirement of manufacturers and jobbers is immi¬ 
nent. Such a buyer leaves usually without even so 
much as asking your terms. The wary salesman is 
always suspicious of the man to whom he can sell 
without an effort. A reckless buyer invites failure 
from the start. It is only a question of how long the 
bank can stand the run before his creditors are 
notified that a smash-up is inevitable. 

The general appearance of a merchant’s store 
or office is a pretty sure indicator of his moral and 
financial standing. Any evidence of waste, lack 
of system, or bad management should not be over¬ 
looked. A slovenly kept store goes hand in hand 
with inefficient office management. Haphazard 
bookkeeping has ruined many a small merchant. 
It is the common experience of most salesmen 
frequently to encounter dealers who do not know 
the cost of things and cannot tell from year to year 
whether they are making a profit or a loss. Their 
collections are no better than their payments. 

Steer clear of the man who spends money that 
belongs to his business. The high-liver, however 
prosperous he may appear, is a menace to credit. 

It is a good thing for the salesman to realize 
[ 268 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

that every time his house extends a line of credit 
to the financially low-water merchant, it is doing 
him a far better business turn than his local bank 
in loaning him a few hundred dollars. 

With a cash payment of five hundred dollars a 
dealer obtains a thousand dollars’ worth of goods 
from his wholesaler, and returns home without funds 
for his current expenses. With the credit thus 
obtained he secures from his bank a few hundred 
dollars, for which he gives his note secured by goods 
in his store as collateral. The wholesaler takes no 
note, is not secured in any way. Credit is extended 
on confidence. That is a thing the salesman should 
know and impress upon his trade when occasion 
demands. Confidence is the common law of barter 
and selling with the wholesaler. Confidence has 
built up the great credit system that rules the com¬ 
mercial world. Confidence makes it possible for the 
merchant with small capital to do business and pros¬ 
per if he is honest and hard-working. Therefore, his 
obligation with his dealer should be safeguarded as 
religiously as his obligation with his banker. But 
too often this is not the case. The note at the bank 
is promptly met because of a wholesome fear of 
banking methods. If there is not enough to go 
around when pay-day arrives, the wholesaler is put 
off with excuses and a plea for an extension. 

Customers are not always grateful for financial 
[ 269 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

favors. They seem to forget easily, and are often 
touchy on the subject. After a long up-hill run, 
during which they are assisted again and again, 
finally coming out in the clearing, with a little 
surplus in the bank and the last payment made, 
they draw a self-satisfied breath and say, “There 
now, I ’ve got you paid up. I can do as I please.” 

It’s a great thing to be free from the bondage of 
debt, and a greater thing to remember with gratitude 
the helping hand that made deliverance possible. 
It is the salesman’s duty deftly but firmly to persuade 
customers like this to appreciate and recognize their 
obligation. 

I remember a customer who had been “ carried 
over” from year to year by the house that gave me 
my start on the road. The firm went out of its way 
on many an occasion to help him to make good 
when no other house in the countiy would trust 
him for a dollar. He was always treated right, 
receiving all the advantages that the best customer 
on the books enjoyed. His business finally grew 
to a point where he was obliged to have more goods 
than his line of credit with us would permit. Realiz¬ 
ing that his need was urgent if his creditors’ demands 
were to be met, I volunteered to set him right with 
a travelling acquaintance from a neighboring house. 
The other traveller accepted my statement of his 
condition, and on his first visit sold him quite a 
[ 270 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to Credits 

large bill. He kept increasing his purchases with the 
new house and likewise his payments, neglecting our 
house on both, naturally feeling that the new house 
should be paid promptly. As our payments grew 
smaller, he concluded that he would better place the 
burden of his business where his remittances were sent. 
His business continued to grow, and by the time he 
had wormed himself free from our debt his purchas¬ 
ing power had increased one hundred per cent. Far¬ 
away houses began to scent his prosperity, which 
tickled his vanity. Gradually he slipped farther and 
farther away from the house that had faithfully stood 
by him for so many years when he was getting a start. 

One day a dispute arose over a price; his pur¬ 
chases had dwindled down to practically nothing; 
he began to abuse my firm. The ire in my soul was 
now thoroughly aroused, and I told him in unvar¬ 
nished terms what I thought of his whole conduct 
toward us. He got sulky, but was too much ashamed 
to resent the flaying he received; besides, he knew 
every word of it was true. 

I let him sulk for six months, then called again, 
greeting him as though nothing had happened. He 
seemed glad to see me. Cordially extending his 
hand, he said, “ Don’t say a word. It’s all right. 
I deserved what I got, and now I’m ready to stick 
to the old firm.” And he kept his word, becoming 
one of our strongest accounts. 

[271 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 


CHAPTER XX 

THE SALESMAN’S RELATION TO THE BUYER 

“One for all and all for one/* is the 
watchword that causes the interests of buyer 
and seller to go forward arm in arm , sup¬ 
porting each other, as they should go. 

E VERY salesman who has overcome the obstacles 
that beset his path, and made good, realizes 
the weight of responsibility that is attached to the 
daily routine of his work. Heavy as the load ap¬ 
pears to be at times, it is as nothing when compared 
to the thorny road every buyer is obliged to travel 
in his efforts at selecting only the best sellers the 
marts of the world afford. 

How to pick the winners is as much of a prob¬ 
lem to most buyers as the operation of a shell game 
is to the average public. If the buyer’s foresight 
were as good as his hindsight, all buyers would 
soon be trying to dodge the proposed tax on swollen 
fortunes. 

It is a great deal easier to criticise than to help. 
The buyers of your house can get along without 
your criticism, but they must have your help. Two 
or three disgruntled salesmen in the line-up can 
turn enough others against a line of merchandise to 
swamp the best buyer on earth in less time than it 
[ 272 ] 


The Salesman’s Relation to the Buyer 

takes to write it. The salesmen of a house can make 
or break a buyer at will. Nearly all salesmen live in 
glass houses when it comes to puncturing the mis¬ 
takes of the buyer with barbed arrows of criticism. 
It is discouraging for the salesman to be obliged to 
have to make good the buyer’s mistakes on the road; 
but the true salesmen, the really big men in the 
profession, are those who have long since learned 
that to be free is to have power to overcome all 
obstacles. 

There should be no cause for discouragement 
because of an occasional error in judgment on the 
part of the buyers. There are enough good sellers 
left in the line to insure a substantial increase in 
your sales, if you will devote some of the time to 
finding them that is spent in trying to persuade other 
salesmen that the buyers who do not come up to 
your standard of fitness should be operating peanut 
stands. 

It ’s a great thing for the salesman to be optimistic 
about the goods he has to sell; to take a cheerful view 
of the buyer’s ability. The salesman with a cheerful 
view will grow and succeed with the poorest sort of 
backing — that is where personality comes in; a 
gloomy, discouraged man can never hope to be 
anything but a trailer. An opportunity to buy 
United States Government bonds bearing interest 
at ten per cent, or Bank of England stock at fifty 
[ 273 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

cents on the dollar, would have no rose-colored hue 
for him. 

Gloom depresses the heart and weakens the 
salesman’s selling-talk. 

We learn to do by doing — not by complaining. 
Make the best of things, and see how clear a path is 
the road that leads to success. 

Lucky is the salesman who can put his little 
individuality on the side of that big giant Progress, 
and do his share to pull in the right direction, and 
help to take away from others the stupidity that 
clings so desperately to those who believe in the 
superiority of their own knowledge of how things 
should be done, as measured against that of those 
whom they are serving. 

To save myself from being misunderstood, I 
feel called upon every little while to explain that 
“Men Who Sell Things” is written for negative 
salesmen, not positive ones 

Speaking of positive salesmen, Billy Morris 
came in to sell my partner hats one day. After 
a voluble talk — it was a warm day — Billy took 
off his coat and began all over again. My partner 
knew that Billy was up against it with a poor line, 
but he was a great admirer of men who possess 
contagious enthusiasm, and he gave him the privi¬ 
lege of showing a few samples. 

Billy knew that it was not a very good line that 
[ 274 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer 

he had, but he singled out one hat and waxed warm 
with enthusiasm, saying, “I positively want to tell 

you, Mr. M-, this is, without exception, the 

best hat in the world.” 

“Do you mean that, Billy,— the best hat in 
the world ? ” asked my partner. 

Quicker than a flash he came back with, “ Yes, 
the best hat in the world.” 

Billy dwelt on the beauties of that hat so much, 
repeating that it was “ the best hat in the world,” 
barring none, that my partner bought a bill of him. 

For years after that, through his having made 
such a strong assertion, we remembered him always 
as “the man with the best hat in the world,” and he 
got an order pretty nearly every time he came 
around through his having made a hit with his 
superlative. 

Billy used to be familiarly known to those in the 
trade who had salesrooms in the vicinity in which 
he was located in New York, in congested Lower 
Broadway. 

He would approach a customer entering his 
salesroom, and walk him up to his display, and 
dilate on the beauties of his hats with great force and 
positiveness. If he succeeded in making a sale, he 
would come out rubbing his hands, his face clothed 
in smiles, and say, “ Well, there’s a good merchant.” 
If things went the other way after he had soared to 
[ 275 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

the highest enthusiasm, and he failed to land his 
man for a bill, he would come out and tell the boys 
with a very solemn face, “That buyer can’t last. 
He don’t know good values when he sees them.” 

Billy is still travelling and prosperous. He 
owns a partnership in the business he helped to 
build up by his unbounded faith in his line, and 
has money from his income to speculate in New 
York real estate. 

A ;poor workman always finds jault with his 
tools , and a poor salesman always finds jault with 
his goods. He may have the most salable line to be 
found anywhere, but that is generally a small part 
of what he has to sell. His strong line is excuses, 
travelling to get ahead of some competitor, or 
cutting the price. Billy Morris sold goods because 
he believed in what he had to sell. If secretly he 
had admitted that his goods were poor, he could not 
publicly have impressed his customers with their 
merchantable value. 

The man who knows, or thinks he knows, that 
his line is not up to that of his competitor, begins 
by doing all manner of things not calculated to add 
to his efficiency, things in keeping with his lack of 
confidence. He is a negative salesman, imbued 
with the idea that he must in some manner over¬ 
come the fancied weaknesses of the buyers. 

For a time his sole object in life seems to be to 
[ 276 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer 

try to be ahead of his competitors. Meeting you 
in the lobby of some hotel, he will ask, “ Have 
you seen Jones yet ? ” Upon receiving a negative 
answer, he continues with, “I cleaned up with him 

all right. I was in X-ahead of him, and I have 

been two days ahead of him all the way around.” 

He seems delighted and satisfied to be two days 
ahead of the other man, when it could be shown in 
numerous instances that his bugaboo, Jones, while 
following behind him, was selling anywhere from 
two to four times as much goods with a poorer line 
of merchandise, simply because he was out to sell 
merchandise, while our weak-kneed friend was out 
to make towns ahead of his competitors, in the blind 
hope of covering the supposed errors in judgment of 
the buyers of his line. 

Never quite sure of his goods, we find him again 
in the role of “ starter ”— the salesman that is always 
selling some article below cost for a bill-starter. 
About three-quarters of his business is done on bill- 
starters, without profit. He always has the bright¬ 
est possible prospects on paper, but they never ma¬ 
terialize. Cornered by the sales manager for cutting 
the price, he will begin by excusing his action on the 
ground that the goods were not right, or that the 
house around the corner had the same thing at a 
closer price. 

Another idea that he possesses is that one new 
[ 277 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

account looks better to him than twice the amount 
sold to his regular customers. 

He is always chasing new scenery, and giving 
Jones plenty of room to take his old trade away 
because of his instability. 

He seems willing enough to open his goods if a 
customer will look at them; which reminds me of a 
friend who said that when he was a boy he used to 
call frequently in company with neighboring boys on 
a lady who lived close by. She would tantalize the 
boys by telling what lovely cake she had in the pan¬ 
try, and she would get each of them a piece if they 
cared for any. Being well-bred boys, they always 
refused, until one day they broke her heart by saying 
in chorus that they would have a piece. 

The man who never thinks his goods are right is 
easily led into arguments with his trade. I once 
had such a salesman. His prices and styles were 
never right, and apparently he would rather get into 
an argument than sell goods. 

One day he got into an argument with a cus¬ 
tomer who was an ardent Romanist, and in place of 
selling the man merchandise, began to argue that 
there was no such place as Purgatory. In the midst 
of the argument, a young Irish priest came in, and 
the merchant said, “ Father Reilly, what do you 
think of this man, who argues there is no such place 
as Purgatory?” 


[ 278 ] 


The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer 

Father Reilly answered, “Let him go.to Hell, 
then.” The salesman who is continually endeav¬ 
oring to defend his right of position and parading 
the errors of the other fellow by arguing is beyond 
redemption. 

Bring yourself to the point where you believe 
there are no buyers in the business like the buyers 
in your house, and you will soon forget that your 
competitors live in the same block. 

While no move of the competitor should be 
overlooked, it is also well not to lose much time 
keeping an eye on him. He will perceive your 
eagerness, and will certainly mislead you. 

That is natural, but don’t lose sight of him; at 
the same time do not follow or watch all his moves 
for fear of losing a customer or a sale now and then. 
If you allow your competition to get on your nerves, 
the shrewdest of buyers and the most seductive of 
prices will fail to look attractive to you. 

Let the buyers take care of themselves. Your 
business is not buying, but selling. 

Establish an individuality and a good refuta¬ 
tion , and live up to them and not upon them , and 
success is likely to abide with you. 

If you are going to get rattled or flustered at 
some sensational move of a competitor, he will play 
upon your weak spot, and you will be apt to find 
yourself spending your energy at random. 

[ 279 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Drive the nail home, and get a reputation for 
doing so, and every one will come to know by the 
appearance of the work that you did it, because your 
individuality is stamped upon it. Between taps, 
of course, you might glance from the corner of your 
eye at your competitor’s strokes; but make up your 
mind first, last, and all the time that you are not 
selling your competitor’s goods, that the goods of 
your house are good goods, and that you can sell 
them. 

And you will sell them. 

Time and thought taken in complaining of com¬ 
petition is useless expenditure of energy. It lessens 
your capacity for the accomplishment of things for 
which you were employed. 

The worst competition is that of the inefficient 
man of poor ability. 

If you are a good salesman, you will understand 
your advantages over such men, and profit by them 
through a proper relationship to the buyers of the 
house that puts its signature at the bottom of your 
monthly salary check. 


[ 280 ] 


The Sales Manager 


CHAPTER XXI 


THE SALES MANAGER 

The backing up a man gets has a large amount 
indeed to do with his success. Don’t let a man 
jail down. If he comes back discouraged , dis¬ 
heartened , and blue y make him understand he is 
doing as well as could, be expected. Encourage 
him and stimulate him with newer and better 
ideas. That is the secret of the sales man¬ 
ager’s method in building successful salesmen. 


Y I iHE saying that a man must work out his own 

salvation as a salesman is good as far as it goes, 
but it does not go far. That is only part of the pro¬ 
gramme. 

The best salesmen any house can have are 
the salesmen it builds for itself. The old saying, 
“ Salesmen are bom, and not made,” is the veriest 
kind of tommyrot in this day of science and prog¬ 
ress. 

Naturally, the root of salesmanship must be in 
the man himself, but the knowledge of how to de¬ 
velop that root into a plant that blossoms and brings 
forth fruit is where the work of the Sales Manager 
comes in. 

One good salesman trained and developed in 
this way is worth a dozen floaters — the here-to- 
day-and-gone-to-morrow class. 

[ 281 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

When a salesman gets ready to hear, he is going 
to be profited by the Sales Manager. 

You can take the best seed in the world and 
scatter it about and leave it alone, but there will be 
no crop; but when you plough the soil, put in the 
seed, and harrow it, in due time comes the harvest. 

So you can take the best seed from the gran¬ 
aries of salesmanship and scatter it about on the 
ground of men’s intellect, and you need not expect 
any return from it; but if you take the ploughshare 
of ripened judgment and prepare the ground and 
harrow it over with faith, patience, and encourage¬ 
ment, then the seed falls down into good ground 
and springs up and bears fruit in the salesmen, some 
fifty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold, to the 
success of that house. 

It is just as necessary that you prepare your 
mind to hear as it is to prepare your ground for 
the seed. This is the seed of salesmanship falling 
upon your mind, and if there is no preparation for 
the seed there will be no harvest. Get ready to 
hear. 

The poorest Sales Manager on earth talks 
enough salesmanship to his men every month to 
make them all top-notchers, when there is a willing¬ 
ness to hear on the part of the salesmen. 

The greatest boon to the sales interests of any 
house is a game Sales Manager, one who is never 
[ 282 ] 


The Sales Manager 

afraid of the truth and who knows how to use it in 
dealing with men; and the greatest drawback is the 
time-serving Sales Manager, who is afraid of hurt¬ 
ing some one’s feelings if he does his duty. 

Now, it takes two things to make an efficient 
sales department — a good Sales Manager and a 
good hearer; and when you get a good Sales Man¬ 
ager and a good hearer together, then you are going 
to have a first-class sales force. 

Well, if a Sales Manager, backed by the very 
experience that you must encounter in order to be¬ 
come successful, must also think and plan continual¬ 
ly in order to get ready to prepare the ground for 
the seed, what must you do to get ready to hear ? 

Be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the 
work. 

If you want to be successful in your work, get 
ready to hear. 

How will you get ready to hear ? 

By thinking and planning and willingness. 
Just precisely as the Sales Manager gets ready to 
help you, you ought to get ready to hear. 

The standards of two salesmen may differ. 
Not because one is more capable than the other, but 
because one has a willingness and a desire to do big 
things, and the other has not. The man of large 
conceptions once worked in narrow channels, but 
when he saw a wider view of what his work might 
[ 283 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

be he embraced the opportunity to become a bigger 
man. It is just about as easy to think of a twenty- 
story building as it is of a one-story building, when 
you turn your mind to contemplating it. 

Make it your business to know what is the best 
that might be in salesmanship for you, and stretch 
your mind to conceive it, and then devise some way 
to attain it. Keep in close touch with the head of 
your sales department, but let him advise you. A 
willingness on your part to seek and make every 
possible use of his counsel and experience will aid 
you materially in your purpose. 

An evil habit may be fostered in a sales organi¬ 
zation as in an individual,— the habit of indiffer¬ 
ence, of shirking, of mischief-making, the clique 
habit, and a thousand ills of a negative kind, not 
the least of which is the habit of finding fault with 
superiors. 

Sometimes the trouble may have started with 
one wrong-headed man or one restless malcontent, 
and have spread and fastened upon the business 
until the evil is perpetuated and infects every new¬ 
comer. 

The Sales Manager must not only watch for 
the development of any wrong tendency and check 
it in its incipiency, but must labor directly to incul¬ 
cate right tendencies, high ideals, cheerfulness, and 
loyalty. 


[ 284 ] 


The Sales Manager 

Every outward expression of a business is a 
reflection of something within, and any sales force 
must get right with itself before it can hope to be 
right and work in harmony with the other branches 
of the business and with the outside world. 

Business houses employing many salesmen may 
well tremble to think of the good or bad impressions 
being continually multiplied and sent out from their 
sales departments. Proprietors may be totally un¬ 
acquainted with that intangible but poten thing, the 
spirit of their sales force. They are not likely to 
see it as it impresses outsiders; or they may realize 
that it is wrong, and feel helpless to change it. 

The necessity for a specific organization of sales 
departments in large institutions, giving the sole 
direction to a managing head, is responsible for the 
creation of the position of Sales Manager. 

Primarily, the position of the Sales Manager is 
to stimulate enthusiastic devotion of all to the com¬ 
mon cause. That is the thing which spells success. 
The contagious enthusiasm of a real leader of sales¬ 
men culminates when it is communicated to all the 
members of the sales force. It has then produced 
an army of doers. 

The power to persuade others is, perhaps, the 
greatest faculty in salesmanship, just as the power 
to inspire others is the greatest faculty in successful 
leadership, and is the one thing to which the Sale* 
[ 28 5 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

Manager devotes his undivided attention in the 
management of his men. 

No man should be at the head of a sales depart¬ 
ment who does not have this gift of leadership — the 
ability to inspire loyalty. The habit of loyalty must 
be established. Those who are not receptive, or 
incapable of it, must be weeded out. 

The salesman who considers no one but himself, 
who is continually saying, “ Where do I come in ? ” 
has a negative influence on any sales aggregation, 
and should be let out. When a salesman cannot be 
made to realize this, he had better quit and give both 
himself and his house a square deal. He does an 
injustice to himself, his managers, and his house 
when he continues in a position of lacking confidence 
in the institution and the men at the head of it. 

Every salesman has an influence either for good 
or bad. If he cannot have a good influence he has 
no right to have a bad one. 


Getting an Interest in the Business 


CHAPTER XXII 

GETTING AN INTEREST IN THE BUSINESS 

Never look behind when running a race , unless 

you want to lose it. Keep your eye on the finish; 

you can make your exertions count for more. 

T T EEP your eye on the finish. 

V. Every man who sells things should be working 
for a purpose. 

What is the desire of your heart and soul as a 
salesman ? What is it that binds you down to years 
of tireless effort ? 

It is to succeed in the end. Am I not right? 

You hope ultimately to secure an interest in the 
business. Your dominant aspiration is to have a 
partnership in the business which you have helped 
to build. Is it not so ? 

The only way that that hope can ever be realized 
is by the principles of right salesmanship. There is 
no room in the stockholders’ meeting or at the direc¬ 
tors’ board for negative salesmen. 

By that I do not mean to say that all right sales¬ 
men eventually become employers. Good men, aye, 
first-class men, are to be found in every institution, 
who, for various reasons, do not seem to bend their 
energies in the direction of a partnership in the busi¬ 
ness; but for those who desire in the end to have a 
[ 287 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

voice in the management through personal invest¬ 
ment it can be obtained in no other way than through 
inherent quality of character in salesmanship. 

Profit and prestige lie in positive and highly 
developed qualities of salesmanship, not in negative 
ones. 

Successful men are men of quality. 

Without equivocation I might say that sales 
men lie closer to the hearts of proprietors than any 
other class of employees. 

When at last you are invited to a place entitling 
you to share in the profits, what a mighty revelation 
the whole field of salesmanship becomes! A glance 
behind the scenes is sufficient to change your views 
completely. Getting an interest in the business — 
that is what opens the eyes of a salesman at last to 
many things that were difficult for him to under¬ 
stand when serving as a private in the ranks. 

The head salesman in the house of which I was 
a senior partner was a man of exceptional ability in 
many things, but he was generally to be found on 
the defensive where the policy of the house was a 
matter of question between the management and the 
sales force. Finally, opportunity was presented him 
to take a moneyed interest in the business. His 
certificates of stock had scarcely been transferred 
and duly recorded when he wanted to start reform 
measures on the other salesmen. 

[ 288 ] 


Getting an Interest in the Business 

There is a certain code of ethics in every estab¬ 
lishment governing salesmanship from the viewpoint 
of the house, and quite a different code from the 
viewpoint of the salesman. 

Having worked my way from stock-boy to sales¬ 
man, from salesman to buyer, from buyer to sales 
manager, and from sales manager to employer, I am 
prepared to say, without qualifying the statement, 
that the average employer’s conception of true sales¬ 
manship is the correct form for any salesman to 
aspire to; and getting an interest in the business will 
confirm it beyond the shadow of a doubt. 

Almost without exception, the histories of great 
business establishments reveal the truth of the asser¬ 
tion that the executive heads — the proprietors — 
w r ere once salesmen. You have only to look to the 
past of the men at the head of the house whose 
goods you are selling to verify this statement. 

Take cases like the Field establishment in 
Chicago, the greatest business house in the world. 
Marshall Field was himself a salesman; and that is 
also true of many of his partners and most of the 
army of the Field managers. 

Find, if you can, one of the great manufac¬ 
tories or mercantile establishments, either wholesale 
or retail in any line, the wmrld over — concerns 
that have emblazoned their names and trade-marks 
around the circuit of the globe — and find one, if you 
[ 289 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

can, that was not established and promoted to 
greatness by men who had once upon a time in 
their business careers sold things. What is true of 
Marshall Field is true of other merchants and 
manufacturers, great or small, in every line of trade. 

When a salesman has ground out his task for a 
certain number of days, months, and years, he begins 
to ask himself where he is going, what he is doing, 
and — why he is doing it. 

Young salesmen begin with enthusiasm, and 
gradually they settle down into the daily grind, 
relieved and rewarded now and then, if the results of 
their efforts justify such acknowledgment. 

To the salesman who does not admit to himself 
that his daily work is a grind, who enters the race 
and sets his face resolutely toward the finish, never 
looking back, belong the rich prizes. 

The other class, men who have no set purpose 
in life at all, plod along bravely enough and without 
any real idea of giving up, and likewise without any 
real idea of where the journey of business life will 
lead them. Without the aid of business chart or 
compass, stopping along the way at times, they ask 
themselves if the game of salesmanship is worth 
while, and if they would not have done better to have 
entered some other field. To each the task that he is 
doing seems irksome and void of results. That is 
because his interest is not in his work. 

[ 290 ] 


Getting an Interest in the Business 

Some one has said that the greatest hell one can 
suffer on earth is to lose interest in life. 

Losing interest in business, looking back from 
the plough, means, first, decay, then stagnation, 
and finally retrogression — the beginning of the 
end. 

Worth while or not is n’t the question. We can¬ 
not run away from our allotted task in life whether 
we think it is worth while or not. The only men 
who have tried it successfully are professional hoboes; 
and salesmen who have endeavored to improve their 
condition and relieve their minds on the subject by 
constantly changing about in a vain attempt to locate 
the star of business success eventually become sales¬ 
men hoboes. 

The best thing for us all to do is to look at the 
bright side of things where we are. 

There are two ways to contemplate our work. 
It is neither bright nor black but as the eyes oj the 
onlooker make it so. 

Men who sell things are divided into two classes 
— those who regard their work with rebellious eyes 
that do not understand, and those who view their 
work with a mind that rises above conditions and 
makes the best of them. 

When Lincoln freed the negroes from slavery, a 
great army was necessary. Every man of that army, 
of course, wanted and hoped to be an officer; every 
[ 291 ] 


Men Who Sell Things 

man would have liked to do the work that Lincoln 
was doing. 

No man should be blamed for having high 
aspirations, for wanting to be more important; but 
any man should be despised for refusing to do the 
humble work of which he is capable, because he 
has not been made commander-in-chief. 

The highest salesman is he who does the lowliest 
thing well. 

We know that, important as Lincoln was, the 
thousands of brave men who followed his generals 
in the field of battle were, as a body, infinitely more 
important. They could have done great things, 
finding other leaders, perhaps, without Lincoln. 
Lincoln could have done nothing without them. 

The fight that Lincoln and his followers began 
against the Secessionists a little more than forty years 
ago is the same fight that the men who sell things 
must continuously wage against negative qualities in 
salesmanship, personal weaknesses, competition, and 
whatever set-backs may be encountered. 

In the great panorama of the business world a 
few names stand out. We see and admire indi¬ 
viduals, great business leaders; but the power that 
controls the entire field of business activity, and has 
brought business up to where one feature alone, 
freight by rail, measured in ton-miles, has increased 
three hundred and fifty per cent in twenty years, ex- 
[ 292 ] 


Getting an Interest in the Business 

ceeding by far the most optimistic railroad presi¬ 
dent’s dreams — that power is the army of Men Who 
Sell Things. 

In salesmanship it is essential that all grades 
of men be associated among the beginners. Time 
only can be depended upon in the necessary weed¬ 
ing process which shall determine the successful 
among the many. It is the beginner who is 
the most susceptible to the influence of bad ad¬ 
vice. 

Let the young salesman who finds himself among 
the small worries of his environment stop and take 
stock of himself and his position. If in the begin¬ 
ning he could feel that he was choosing wisely the 
field of salesmanship, surely he cannot so stultify his 
first judgment as to weigh it against the influence of 
another beginner who may have had less experience, 
and who he knows has far less judgment than him¬ 
self. Yet this is the one thing which all his nature 
may prompt him to do. 

One of the especial weaknesses of the young 
salesman lies in expecting too much of his house. 
He must recover himself and get back his sense of 
proportion which shall guide him sanely in his 
expectations. Then, having it, he can do no better 
than to be guided by this new judgment, keeping 
his own counsel. 

There is no surer measure of a salesman’s re- 
[ 293 ] 




Men Who Sell Things 

sources and strength than his ability to move and 
judge for himself. 

If the young salesman will begin this course, 
merely, he must find it redounding to his every in¬ 
terest in business. 

I have little more to say. If I have appeared 
to be harsh in my treatment of the subject, the ap¬ 
parent harshness has emanated wholly from a de¬ 
sire to paint a faithful and true picture of both the 
negative and positive phases of our great profession 
as I have come to know them. 

A thorn in the flesh hurts; pulling it out hurts 
still more; but leaving it in to fester and poison hurts 
most of all. The pain is severe when the foreign 
substance is being removed, but that is the only way 
that health and life can be insured. The thorn out, 
the wound quickly heals. 

The whole problem of negative salesmanship 
looks to me like the manner in which the farmer 
killed a neighbor’s dog. The farmer was walking 
down the roadway, whistling a merry tune. A pitch- 
fork was carelessly slung over his shoulder. As he 
was passing a neighbor’s house, a big and vicious dog, 
with ears back and teeth showing, jumped out and 
showed fight. The farmer took down his fork and 
rammed it through the dog, killing him on the spot. 

The neighbor, coming from a field close by 
and seeing his dog dead, exclaimed, “Oh, you 
[ 294 ] 


Getting an Interest in the Business 

have killed my dog! Why did n’t you take the 
other end of the fork to him ? ” 

The farmer calmly replied: “If your dog had 
come at me with the other end, I would.” And he 
went on his way. 

Hundreds of men who are selling things now 
will some day doubtless be employing salesmen 
themselves. You can see it by studying their faces, 
their actions, the quiet, determined, resolute manner 
of the one who is sure that one day he will have an 
interest in the business in which he is now em¬ 
ployed, or be in business for himself, and make a 
success of it. 

Business is a great battle-field, and there are, 
roughly speaking, several million men who sell 
things, surging backward and forward over its sur¬ 
face, fighting for success. Each has a separate 
little battle of his own. 

One side of the business battle-field is black, 
while one side is bright. May the readers of this 
little book try to look always upon the bright side, 
patient in their hard work, without losing ambition. 
And may many of them change their present position 
in the ranks for a higher and more responsible one in 
the officers’ quarters that will give them a chance to 
do more and better work. 

Work is all there is in a man. 


THE END 


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